


The Shadow in the Stars

by Anonymous



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gangs, Geniuses, I totally forgot to mention that shoot, Kidnapping (not of you), Post-Canon, Science, Slow Burn, Slow Updates, Stuff, Tags Are Hard, also a lot of swearing, anyways story starts out lighthearted gets proressively more dark, everyone dies like twice, everyone you know is gay or single, except for you, i dont know how science works, i mean what, i shouldve mentioned that from the start oops, im trying my best ok, its edgy in some parts sorry guys, its really more between teen and mature but whatever, its so fucking slow, like really slow burn, long chapters followed by short chapters, messing with timelines and bullshit, reader is female, soul-torture, theres really not much to say, uh, violence isnt explicit, well anyways youve been warned, you have like ten sisters, youre a genius
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:20:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 29,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21903631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: || Y/N Starr. That's who you are. A scientist, not well known, but one nonetheless.You live in the shadow of your family, and everything you do is associated with your family. The Starr's.God, you wanted a break, just once.So, here we are now. You've created a medicine, supposed to expand a dying being's lifespan for 5 or so more years, end their suffering to live just a little longer.That's what it all started with, a cheat on life.Life doesn't enjoy cheaters.Thankfully, you're not alone in the fight against the world.Nobody is.You, especially. ||
Relationships: Alphys/Undyne (Undertale), W. D. Gaster/Reader
Comments: 7
Kudos: 37
Collections: Anonymous





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> //Yes this is on Quotev, I just thought I'd e x p a n d my audience  
> //There's not much to say but uh... enjoy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! See you in the next Update!

Chapter 1.

“Why is the elevator still broken?” You murmured, unhappily as you trudged up the winding stairs, made of polished marble. Standing out compared to the bland white walls. Your shoes squeaked against the material. You grunted, heaving yourself up every step. You hadn’t even gotten into the lab yet, and you were on the verge of turning back and going home. You climbed up the stairs and eventually reached the top. Heaving a loud breath, torn from your fragile lungs, you walked down the hallway quietly, to the end. At the end of the bland hallway with a white wall on one side and a glass wall, the other was a room. You walked into it. It was dimly lit, and the walls were a disgusting dark green. The early birds were already up and working, working on assigned projects, or fiddling around with something they hope will do something different. 

You nodded to a couple of them and continued past, and into a corner, which leads into another room. A larger one, with a window or two more, and a freshly tiled floor. A desk in the middle, and some workstations scattered around the room, all mostly clean. A line of machines on one side of the room. Carefully you set your stuff down by the door and grabbed your notes. Heaving them onto the desk in the middle.

Carefully, you roll up your sleeves as your sister, Amber, walked into the room. 

Amber, the tall(er than you-) redhead, your sister. She was a year or so older than you. She was pale and had an immense case of freckles. She was a genius, essentially. She’s done a lot of work on monster magic, law’s, theorems and so ever since the monsters got released from Mount Ebott 5 years ago. And also probably your closest friend. Whom of which; loves to annoy you. 

She smiled at you gently and slapped down a big packet of papers in your arms, causing you to stumble and nearly trip, leaving you slightly on the floor. You chuckled and started to pull yourself back up.

Your other sister, Jules, walked carefully into the room (unlike Amber, who half broke the door hinge, again.) She was an inch or so taller than Jules, and 3 years older than you. She had curly dirty blonde hair that she straightens and a fair complexion. She works as a doctor in Ebott hospital, as head of the board of pain and medicine, and whatnot, among other things. She was also a genius, in her own sense. She’s definitely comprised better ways for people to handle their jobs at the hospital, how to deal with monster bodies rather than human bodies. Frankly, you didn’t have the attention span to listen to her talks and rants about the hospital. You and she have a difficult relationship, but putting that aside, you would do anything for her, or Amber. They were your family, after all.

In after Jules strolled your boss, Dr.Gaster. Ranging at over 6’0” - verging on 7’0”, he towers over all of you. A stall skeleton, often wearing the same goddamn black robe, middle of summer or winter be it, the only thing that changes is his shoes, sometimes. You swear, he has to have a million of the same pairs of turtlenecks and pants. You swore he had two, and only two, emotions; ‘disappointed’ and ‘I don't care.’ A crack ran up from the top of his right eye, and one down from his left. He had holes in his palms, for reasons nobody could get out of him for. He and Jules were close acquaintances, closer than most. 

You? Apologies, you are Y/N Starr, the youngest Starr. You were the scientist of the family. While Jules majored in Medicine, and Amber a mix of Science and Art, you majored singularly in Science. Chemistry and biology, specifically. You were easily the least recognizable Starr, 29 years old and not having done much yourself in terms of your field, except for one thing. A liquid, that if applied correctly, could expand a dying being’s lifespan by 5 (estimated) years, leaving them healthy for a good while, and returning them back to their original state a week before the time period is up. At least, that’s what you have theorized. Only the first part of the equation has been observable, considering the liquid was only released a good half a year ago. You work under Dr.Gaster, and it’s safe to say that feelings between you two are tense.

Snapping out of your thoughts, you looked up, Amber leaving the room, bored beyond wits already. Jules talking idly with the Dr. You sighed and stood up straight, glancing out the window behind you. Overlooking the large city you wondered how you got here. 

What happened? You look over at him and feel your soul lurch for a second. Time seems to have gone so quick. Too quick. You glance at Jules and smile weakly. Anything for your sister. Let’s...rewind (aaah. It’s rewind time. Aah that’s hot, that’s ho-) to the beginning.

Let’s go back to the beginning for a better understanding.

Before the “cure.”

Before meeting your hero.

Before...this drama.

You hurried into the lab quickly, your footsteps under you seeming to echo through the hallway. This hallway was a different one, no room at the end of the hallway, not yet. Your boots clicked against the concrete floor, gripping your notes tightly to your chest, and your messenger bag flopping behind you, as you struggled to put on your lab coat. You squeaked into the room, letting out a heavy breath. Karl, the floating head arms and legs, turned to look at you. Monster’s had been free for about 3 years by this point. He chuckled at you mindlessly. “Traffic? Or was it that your car broke down?” He joked.

You grumbled and walked gently into the room, still regaining your breath. You whacked him over the head with your heavy stack of papers and dropped the papers on your desk, a few steps forward. Your desk had been through more than most, seen many explosions. It was half broken, needing desperate repair. Your equipment was worn and damaged. You should probably get to fixing that. You were an inch away from a groundbreaking discovery. All you wanted to do was make your own shadow, and not live in Jules’ or Amber's shadow any longer.

It was right in front of your eyes, Jules Happiness, Amber’s happy screaming, Ignatia (Your best friend) hugging you, and hopefully not setting you aflame (being a fire elemental takes work, or so you’ve been told.) Dad would be proud, and who knows what could happen from there, work opportunities, people looking up to you. You had a whole plan for what you wanted to do when that happened.

But, for now, you’re stuck with Karl and Kathy, your assistant. And while it wasn’t ideal, you couldn’t ask for better friends. Speaking of the floating head with limbs, his skin colour was blue, usually, so why all of a sudden was its bright neon orange. You hold back a laugh as you turn to face Karl, taking a break from setting up your stuff. “Dye yourself pink by the way?” You smirked. Karl grunted.

“Let me guess,” You pretended to ponder for a moment. “Amber?” Ah, Amber. The trickster of the family. Amber and Karl were good- no, best friends, so of course, it would be her. Only she would do something like that. 

“Haha very funny. Yes, it was Amber again, snuck another chemical into the showers.” You even wondered sometimes how Amber manages to pull these things off sometimes.

“You sure it wasn’t Jules?” In all honesty, you didn’t think it was Jules. Jules was the mature grownup one of the lots of you, she would never consider doing that. You just frankly, wanted to talk to someone while you did your work. You had grown quite lonely since all of your friends went to study under another somewhere else in the country, and Amber and Jules always being bombarded with work.

“Nope, had Amber written all over it. Literally, she wrote ‘Amber was here’ on my bathroom wall.” You snickered. That was Amber, pulling pranks and getting revenge. What did poor Karl do this time?

“What did you do to her this time Karl?” You snickered.

“Figured it was something to do with me binge-watching Game of Thrones without her.” You snorted.

“You of all people should know she loves that show.”

“More than ME?”

“Well- yeah,” You chuckled.

“Unfortunately. I dunno how you deal with her sometimes, N/N (Nickname), she’s incomprehensibly annoying when it comes to this.” He grumbled, getting annoyed at his lack of materials. “Where’s Kathy? I haven’t seen her in a good deal of time.” He says, standing up and pushing his work aside from the desk. 

You shrug and sit back down, pulling down the glasses resting atop your head and grabbing some gloves. “Dunno. I’m still waiting on my herbal medicines li-” Your thoughts were cut off when Kathy, a small purple cat monster burst through the door.

“Sorry- Sorry I-I’m late, Dr- Dr.Starr and-” She looked up at the fuming Karl. “-Dr. Hills-” She quietly walked up to Karl and handed him a stack of notes, walking up to you shortly after, and handing you a stack of papers on herbal medicines. Before she left you stood up.

“Kathy?” You asked, Karl, returning back to his work. Kathy turned around quietly. “Please, call me Y/N.” You smiled gently at her. She looked around quietly and turned back to look at you. She nodded.

“Yes, Dr- U-uhm, Y/N.” Kathy stumbled over her words, running off hurriedly. Her footsteps echoing throughout the hallway. You heaved a heavy sigh and sat back down, starting to work.

You checked the time on your phone, even with your glasses, it was hard to read the time. You assumed it was around 12. Karl got up, presumably having passed out. He slid up and out of his chair, the chair backing up against the wall in the next room. He yawned and stretched, shuffling lightly, grabbing his stuff and shoving it in his bag. “Don’t overwork yourself.” He said leaving the room quietly, closing the door almost fully behind him. You forced yourself back up.

“I have to do this,” You murmured, staring out at the moonlit city, the moon is your only source of light. “I have to finish this potion-” You were cut off by a yawn. “I have to do this.” You murmured, sitting back down and getting straight back to work. 

It was now 2 am, you were tired beyond wits. It was unimaginably hard to see, with only moonlight and your tired eyes. Unhurriedly, you grabbed the vial of Determination. This was the farthest you’ve ever gotten to getting a working vial of what you hoped, could save many people’s lives. It was difficult to get ahold of DT, so the fact you had a whole vial of it was, to you, considered a miracle. 

Gently you poured the drop of DT into the silvery liquid, expecting an explosion. 

Nothing happened, so hesitantly you took a cotton swab and mixed it together. It became a piercing red-silver mixture, that glowed in the moonlight. You stumbled up and out of your chair, the chair falling backwards. You glanced over at the dead rat over in the cage, died earlier from heart failure. Natural causes.

Without much hesitation, crossing your fingers, you injected only ¼ of the vial's substance into the dead rat. (Which smelled horrifical, you have no idea.)

It felt like hours but was only minutes. The rat wasn't moving, and you were about to call it quits. It was about time you stopped. You would have to accept it- living in your sister's shadows for the rest of your life. You’ll never be Y/N. You’ll just be Starr. You-

Your thoughts were cut off by the rat seizing back to life. It struggled for a moment, before staring back at you. Your breathing increased. A smile found its way to your face, and tears threatened to leak from your eyes.

“Oh my god…” You were already rushing back to your desk to write down the exact steps and measurements you took to get here. Your phone dinged, it was Jules. You stopped writing for a brief second.

Jules: Y/N, you alright? Are you home?

You took a moment to breathe.

You: Jules, I may have done it.

You woke up the next day still at your desk, notes fully written. You sprung awake when Karl lightly tapped your shoulder. “I told you not to overwork yourself-” He stared down at the paper underneath your arms, and the rat, dead yesterday, now chittering away, very much alive.

“N/N ...did you-” You took a moment to cough and yawn.

“I might’ve.” 

After several days of Karl completely dropping his work to help you test this liquid, all tests proved successful. In every field, you may have finally done it. Karl stared at you for a second. “I think we can submit the medical report.” You nearly fell over. 

“You...think?” You questioned, not knowing if it was safe.

Karl nodded. “I think they oughta see this.” He said, walking back to his desk and pulling out his laptop.

The printer sprung to life, printing out several pages of paperwork.

“Oh dear god, the fun begins.” You murmured, seeing the immense amount of filling out you might have to do.

A month later.

You walked gently into work, yawning non-stop. You hadn’t slept in such a long time, ever since you got the email that the association was reviewing the drug, they called it. Was that even the proper term for it? You couldn’t remember, too sleep deprived to function normally. You had trouble walking up the stairs, and getting to your seat was a whole different story. You were thankful you were able to make it to your seat in time. Unlike usual, Karl wasn’t in the lab yet.

However, this was quickly resigned to feelings of dread when he came into the room, gripping a piece of paper with a logo that was very recognizable. He looked up from the paper, a face that could make anyone feel nervous. He handed you the letter, brows furrowed. 

You scanned the paper, butterflies erupting in your stomach. 

And at the end of the paper, 5 magical words.

“Your medicine has been approved.”

You burst into tears, crying happily. Karl’s serious facade broke and he smiled widely. You choked on your tears a bit. “Oh my god.” You were barely able to murmur. “We did it!” You sprung up from your chair and attempted to hug Karl, realizing it’s more difficult than imagined. “We did it!”

Karl chuckled and patted your back. “You did it.”

It was around midnight, you were doing some last minute testing. Karl stood up from his chair gently and shuffled through his stuff. “I would say don’t overwork yourself,” He chuckled, starting to walk to the door. “But it seems my efforts would be fruitless. Go home tonight, you deserve it.” And with that he creaked open the door and walked quietly down the hallway, his footsteps echoing for a good deal of time after that.

Your phone dinged a text message. It was from Jules.

Jules: I need you to get down here and administer H1427, or if it has a different name.

That was the medicine. You breathed heavily and nodded. Clicking off your phone at lightning speed and shoving it into your pocket, you messily shoved all your stuff in your messenger bag and grabbed a small dosage of the medicine, running quickly down the stairs. You ran out of the building and screeched to a stop in front of light traffic.

You tapped your foot as the pedestrian symbol turned green, and you bolted towards Ebott Hospital, not taking notice of people’s odd glances in your direction or the fact your lungs felt like they were currently collapsing. You arrived at the hospital in no time and shuffled through your items in your bag to find your ID. You waited until it scanned, opening the doors and allowing you inside. You navigated the giant hallways and got into the elevator, knowing Jules was downstairs in the basement. That’s where the emergency department was, and where she mainly worked. 

You: I’m here, which room?

Jules: 702

You sprinted out of the elevator, shouting a quick sorry to the man you just nearly knocked into. You rounded the corner with speed and turned into room 702. You panted heavily and looked to the patient. A small Snowdrake, a child, possibly, lay in the bed. He looked dreadful, his feathers discoloured, he struggled to keep his eyes open, and his family was half in tears. The soul pulse monitor was barely enough to keep him alive, and in truth, he was probably to be dead in a minute or two. 

You handed the medicine to Jules while she hurriedly fumbled to load it into a needle. “Are you sure this will work? It’s brand new-?” You questioned her. The other doctor in the room, Xisi, stood behind the family and nodded.

“If the Association approves it, we have legal rights to administer it. The family has given their consent-” He started, assuring you that you should trust Jules.

“-Anything, please, just help him.” the mother (presumably) cut off Xisi, tears welled up in the corner of her eyes. You nod reaching for the mother’s hand, she handed it to you and cupped her hand(? wing?) gently in yours. 

“We’re doing everything we can.” You reassured her, hoping that this would work, it’s only been tested on rats, and maybe one or two humans back at the association, never a monster. You were crossing your fingers for this Snowdrake’s survival as much as the mother was.

Minutes passed after Jules injected the medicine, and everyone was holding their breaths. If this didn’t work, this family would blame you for their son’s death. The other doctor would blame you for not saving the Snowdrake. Jules would blame you for not testing it more. You really wouldn’t be able to handle it.

The Snowdrake’s eyes fluttered open, and he coughed. His soul pulse was rapidly assuming back to normal, and his feathers were becoming coloured again. You let out a large breath and a weak chuckle. “Oh thank god.” You mumbled. Jules beamed down at you and opened her arms. You gladly fell into them, hugging her back gently. 

“Congrats, little sis. You finally did it.” Jules murmured, muttering words of reassurance. 

“Thanks, I’m glad it’s over.” You mumbled into her shoulder.

“Oh no, honey, there’s a lot coming for you,” Jules mentioned, pulling away, glancing at the Snowdrake. “Xisi, cover the rest of my shift.” Xisi nodded and started hooking up the Snowdrake to various medications to keep him alive.

Jules rung her arm around yours and lead you out into the hallway. “Do you have all your stuff?”

You checked your bag briefly. “Most of it, some of my notes are back at the lab, but that's about it.”

She nodded and looked back towards the hallway. It was silent, as she unhooked her arm from yours and rounded into the elevator, you close behind her.

“Mind if we talk on the way home?” She suggested. You nodded.

“Of course, I know I need a long nap after that.” You both chuckled before it lapsed back into a comfortable silence.

“You know, I didn’t sleep for a week, waiting for my letter of approval to perform certain medical procedures on monsters. I was so scared ‘what if I went about it wrong?’ Doubt clouded my mind. Then I got the letter, and I was so happy. Do you remember?” She reminisced, walking out of the hospital with a beep of her ID, and into the cool night air. “I screeched, Both of you hugged me and cried with me, it was one of the best days of my life.” She sat down on a bench, by a bus stop, she had weak legs she couldn't move for long periods of time.

“Yeah, I remember.” You sat down in silence next to her, enjoying the breeze. “Did Karl tell you, about when I got the letter? He looked at me all solemnly and said ‘read it’. If I hadn’t known better, I would've thought that one of you died.” You chuckled weakly and sighed it off, getting back up. “Those five words changed my life, Jules.” Jules nodded.

“I know. I went through it, too.” She stood up and continued to walk. “I know you, Y/N, we may not be blood, but I know how you think. I think like you, as well. You think that you can plan, what will happen from now on. It gives you some closure.” Shit, she’s right on the spot. “But, let me tell you something, never is anything ever going to be predictable, again. Maybe after a while, it calms down. The media move onto someone else. For me, it was Amber. For Amber, it’s you. Let me tell you, you have a storm coming your way.” She smiled at you weakly. “Don’t worry, a good storm. A storm that’ll bring flowers, and whatnot. I don’t remember the analogy Dad used, but it’ll be good.”

It didn’t take much walking before you were in front of your apartment building. It was a tan color on the outside and very modest living on the inside. Your neighbors were friendly and life seemed peaceful. The way Jules phrased it, you might want to hang onto that for a while. 

“It’s calming, isn’t it? Listening to the birds.” She said, glancing at the park in front of your apartment building. “Call me if you ever need anything. And take some time to rest, you’ll need it.” Jules said, walking away quietly.

You unlocked the door to your apartment, on the top floor. Papers were scattered everywhere. You should get to cleaning that up.

You rubbed your eyes and stretched backward a bit. Jules was always so mature and serious around her family, maybe she should loosen up a bit.

You chuckled. “Jules? Loosening up? Funny story. I’ll tell that to my grandkids one day, ‘And as I cleaned up the papers in my apartment, I sat on this very couch and thought ‘Jules should loosen up!’’ and they’ll burst out laughing.” You chuckled at the weak joke and cleaned up the last of your materials, the apartment finally looking decent. You cracked your neck and rolled your shoulders, setting your bag down on the dining table carefully, and walking down the hallway to your room.

You opened the door and let out a yawn, not realizing how desperately you needed sleep.

Without much second thought, you cleaned yourself up, made sure not to fall asleep in the shower and lazily put on some shorts and a hoodie, passing out on your bed. Sleep grasping you instantly. 

You were, after all, going to need it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! See you in the next Update!

Chapter 2.

(Swearing Warning)

“Should I wake up?” you murmured groggily, drowsy, and still in your hoodie and shorts. You yawned, as you slid out of bed, putting more energy than should be deemed necessary to get out of bed. Quietly you stood up straight, hearing some bones crack into place. You groaned and walked stiffly to the bathroom. You don’t know if it’s just you, but the temperature seems to have dropped drastically. You didn’t fiddle with the A.C. It could be Core’s pipes again? After all, they run everywhere in the city.

After completing your daily morning hygiene routine, you made a note to call Amber. Quickly, you climbed down the stairs, the wood creaking loudly, causing you to wince. You slowed down your pace as you treaded across your living room’s carpet. No use in waking the neighbours. You sigh and enjoy the small warmth the carpet provides. You walk gently to the kitchen and unplug your phone from it’s charging space. 4:07, Great. You certainly were up too early to head to the lab.

You sighed and brought out some cereal. It was one of the first decent breakfasts you’ve had in a good while. You slid the bowl with cereal and milk along the dining table. It halts at a stop near the middle of the table, and you pull up a chair along the middle of the table, pulling the cereal, and the remote it knocked towards you. With a sigh, you clicked on the TV and set your phone next to you.

You switched to the news channel you watched most often and focused most of your attention on it. One subtext caught your attention. “Core pipes have a malfunction again.” You furrow your eyebrows and watch with more intensity.

“And that’s the weather for today, on a different note, there seems to have been a small malfunction in the core, causing a small explosion on,” the guy starts. You lean in close, knowing Amber lives very close to the center of the city, where the core is located underneath the streets.

“Ebott Ave.” That’ where Amber lives. You reached for the phone and hurriedly dialed her, standing up and out of your chair. “Thankfully, nobody was hurt or injured, workers are still working on repairing the malfunction, we couldn’t get ahold of Dr. Gaster, however, we were able to reach the head engineer, here’s what he had to say.” The screen cuts to another guy in the work field.

“This explosion was nothing serious, we have reassured the surrounding areas that repair will be quick. We’re currently looking into the energy imbalance that happens-” You clicked off the TV and paced around the room, waiting for Amber to pick up, now having discarded breakfast.

“Hello? Amber Starr here-” she picks up. You sigh in deep relief.

“Hey, Amber. Are you alright? I heard about the explosion on TV.”

“Oh yeah, I’m good. I was heading to work, so I wasn’t there to receive it. It’s small, nothing serious.” She reassures.

“Alright, stay safe.” You hung up on her.

You sigh heavily and place your phone down on the kitchen counter. Today was going to be a long day, you just had a gut feeling.

You arrive at work fairly early, early enough to catch Karl on the way. He’s already in the lab, as you walk down the hallway. He looks at you then ducks back into the lab. There’s a small shout and a smile tugs at your lips, knowing this is probably a surprise party. You knew your sisters and friends all too well.

You walked into the room and, as expected, the lights turn on and Amber is the only one that says Surprise. Everyone kind of looks at her like a 5-year-old, which she has the mentality of one. You chuckle lightly.

“Good morning. Hope you guys didn’t have to wake up too early. Also, Amber, aren’t you supposed to be at work?” You notice Jules is absent, well that’s to be expected. She’s not exactly the party kind of person.

Amber chuckles. “It’s either cake or gets yelled at for some dumb equations. Trust me, I’d choose the cake any day.” She jokes. You beam at her. She opens her arms and you hug her. “'Grats sis, you’re part of the team now."

“What team?”

“The ‘media is obsessed with us but we just want to live our lives,’ team!” She says, pulling away and handing you a noise maker. You chuckle and grab it.

“You went overboard with this.” You say looking around. Amber chuckles and nods.

“Jules is too busy to want a party, the Doc is- the doc,” She shudders. Somehow, seeing the way she shuddered, brave Amber, shudder at the mere thought of throwing a nice party for someone, and them getting angry? -2 hero points to him. Though, the hero points were maxed out a while ago.

You chuckle. “Well, It’s much looser here, I say we all needed a break.” Everyone in the room silently nods to your statement.

“Well? Where’s the goddamn cake!” You chuckle, smiling widely. Breakfast be damned, it’s cake time.

Somehow, you regretted that. The cake was delicious, but a bit too much for 6 in the morning. Everyone had left, and Karl was back to working on his stuff. Fiddling with soul properties and whatnot.

You were fidgeting with H1427, trying to find better ways to administer it, work better, does it work with both humans and monsters? Lots of questions, hopes, and crossing fingers in testing stages. You sigh into your hands, bored out of your mind. You pluck your laptop from your bag and open it as you set it on the table.

To be frank, you didn’t mean to spend 5 hours on YouTube. “Just one video,” you told yourself.

35 ½ videos later, it was around 9pm. Karl had left, and you were pretty sure you were the last one here. You grumbled and saved the video to your watch later, closing your laptop.

Minimally, you organized your papers and neatly put them back into your bag. You got up and were halfway out the door when your phone dinged.

Amber: What’s up, I’m outside.

You gently looked up from your phone to see Amber, through the glass on the hallway, waving at you. She had an orange scarf around her neck, a beanie, and a beige coat. Her hand waved furiously at you. You smiled and picked up the pace, climbing down the stairs. You met her outside. Carefully, you closed the door behind you and locked the door behind you. You smiled carefully at her, not knowing what the heck she needed from you this time.

“Hey.” She said briefly, starting to walk. “Walk with me?” She offered.

You nodded and started to follow her. “You’re out early, usually you get out at around midnight. Or so I’ve heard.” You respond.

“Yeah, I got out early today. Dr. Gaster said something about finishing up this project later and that I could go.” Amber started, walking slowly down the sidewalk. You kept up relatively well with her pace. She seemed to not be in a hurry, you’re thankful for that, needing time to recuperate after today.

“Really, he tired of your already? I’m surprised you haven't been fired.” You fired back lightly. You chuckle at her un-amused expression.

“Ha ha very funny. He screams at me, I scream at him back. Honestly, it’s a miracle I still work under him.” She fake laughed and then chuckled a bit. “Wait till you meet him, two workaholics, screaming at each other at 2am? Wonderful for me and all the other late workers.” Monotone and sarcastic delivery. That’s Amber, for you.

“You say that as if I’m ever going to meet him.” You rolled your eyes, pace even and eyes drifting around the city. It’s quiet. Dark, and quiet.

“C’mon, Y/N, you’re a renowned scientist now, or whatever the term is. Of course, you might meet him.” She started up again.

“Sure, after meeting you and Jules? And possibly meeting Father at the Ebott City Council? I don’t think he ever wants to hear the last name ‘Starr’ ever again.” Both of you laughed a little, knowing full well how true that is. Your family is a handful, to say the least.

“Sorry,” She replied.

“Yeah yeah, you’re not sorry.” You knew your sister better than that.

“No, I’m not.” You could practically hear the smile in her voice.

“How’s...work?” You continued.

“Nothing interesting, really. Jules, head over heels for him,” It may be quiet, and dark, but Amber knew when to not use his name. It draws attention, and everyone is eager for a story to tell.

“Called it, Ignatia is a huge shipper of it.” Which, she is. You’d have to meet Ignatia to know just how intense she gets about her ships. It’s one of the many reasons you two are best friends.

“Isn’t he like your hero?” Amber commented. You felt a small hint of embarrassment rushing to your face. You glanced down at your feet, and then to the other side where Amber isn’t walking.

“Sort of. It’s complicated.” You whispered, feeling the embarrassment rushing to your face again.

“Wow, already getting complicated and you haven’t even met him yet.” Amber laughed as you turned bright red.

“ExcuSE ME-” You started, composure leaving you.

“Fight me, I dare you.” She challenged. Amber takes martial arts, no thanks.

“No, continue on with your work.” You grumbled, returning back to back to your previous conversation.

“Screaming, a lot of screaming. The usual thing breaks, nothing too intense that doesn't work without a thorough yelling.” She explained. Yeah, that sounds about right. “You?”

“Ah, It can be described in one word.” You replied simply.

“And that word is?”

“Karl.” Karl is his own adjective. It’s sort of an inside joke between you and Amber.

“That makes too much sense to be humanly possible.” This conversation is slowly getting confusing.

“Well, now we’ve got monsters so, yeah. There isn’t much that can reach Karl’s level of stupidity. He’s a good guy, a great worker, but the shit he pulls. You have no idea.” You chuckled, glancing up at the night sky. You can hardly see the stars.

“You found anyone yet?” She said, casually switched to a different conversation topic.

“What?” You didn’t like where this is going.

“You know, romantically?” She explained.

“Oh dear god, no. I doubt anyone is interested in me.” You explained simply, again.

“But are you interested in ...?”

“I’m interested, (sexually and or romantically) it’s just nobody is interested in me.”

“Anyone in mind?” She nudged your shoulder.

“No, fortunately, I’m too caught up in my own stress, blood, sweat, and tears that I rarely have time to even think about anything with anyone.” You stressed that.

“Nobody? Really?”

“Nobody. How are things going between you and Ignatia, by the way?” You said, casually changing the topic of conversation.

“Slowly. Which is what we agreed on.” She sighed.

“Glad to hear that. Both you and Jules deserve happiness, I’m glad to see you two are finding it.”

“Hm.”

“Why the Hm?” You questioned.

“Jules’ situation is a bit complex,” Amber explained.

“Oh?” You perked up.

“Well, you know she likes the Doctor, it’s obvious to practically the whole world.”

“Yeah, I’ve known this for longer than several years.”

“We all have, it’s just- It’s sort of one-sided? And Jules’s having a rough time actually getting through to him.” Ouch.

“That sucks,”

“It does. But, we’re doing our best.” Hold up, we’re?

“How’s Andrew, by the way-” You continued.

“Andrew? Ah, still as infatuated with Poor Jules as ever. Jules remains oblivious, and, well, They’re still the best of friends. Frankly, I’m having a hard time telling what Jules’ feels about him.” Amber explained, her breath turning into a misty fog.

“Sometimes it feels like Jules pays more attention to everything else but us, her two sisters.”

“Hah, I can second that. I practically work with her.”

There’s a bit of silence.

“...So.”

“So?”

“Why’d you come here? I doubt it’s to discuss our work and personal antics.” You knew her better than that.

“No, it’s not. I came here to warn you.” Warn? Dear god.

“Oh? What about?” You knew exactly what about.

“The recognition ceremony.” You called it.

“Ah. That thing. What about it must you desperately warn me about?” You chuckle, pulling your sweater up to cover your nose.

“Just a heads up, really.” Somehow you doubted that.

“Continue.”

“Well, you’ll get your letter real soon, maybe a week or two if you’re unlucky.”

“-Unlucky?”

“Yes, unlucky. Don’t think I don’t know you, you have trouble talking to Ignatia about the smallest of things, I doubt you’ll do very well on stage in front of thousands of people and several reporters.” Man, you’re easier to read than you expected.

“...Can’t argue with that. Go on,”

“If matters are worse enough, though, you might get a delayed letter or even a cancellation and just mail the award to you. It happened to me.”

“Yeah well, you have more luck than I do in just about everything.”

“That’s true.”

“However, that’s not the case here. The council seems to be doing fine, so maybe in a week or two you’ll get your letter, you’ll have 2-4 weeks to prepare your speech, blah. The boring stuff.”

“What happens during the ceremony?”

“Ah, that’s the interesting part. It’s usually short. Lasts maybe 30 minutes to an hour. They’ll set it up on the steps of the council building, most likely. You’ll walk up, get your award. Say your main speech, thank some people, shake some hands and Badda bing badda boom it’s over,”

“Thrilling.” You replied sarcastically.

“Extremely.” She returns, just as sarcastic.

“There will be some important people there, the Queen and The Monster ambassador will be there, they enjoy these things. The king, probably not. Maybe a couple important people, the Doctor if I can drag him outside long enough.”

“Don’t even think about it. The last thing I need after embarrassing myself in front of the queen is to be embarrassed in front of one of the few people I look up to.”

“I’ll make a mental note to get him outside.”

“hhHHrgh.” You grunt, as you both round a corner.

“Is that all?”

“Yeah, I guess. The media will care for a week and then you’ll move on with your life.”

“Thanks.” Again, a hint of sarcasm.

“Anytime.” She replies, smiling.

“Welp, we’re here. I’ll see you later.” She says, standing in front of your apartment building. The same tan colour as ever.

“Yeah, see you.” You reply quietly, walking into your building.

As you rode up the elevator to your apartment, you took some time to think. Nails bitten, you slumped against the elevator wall. Listening to the calming buzzing sound. You sighed.

“I’m not going to be able to plan my life anymore, am I?” The elevator doors hummed open. You let out a heavy breath you hadn’t realized you had been holding. “I’ll find a way to make peace with that idea.” You whisper to yourself, thinking aloud. You gripped your bag, slung over your shoulder.

You unlocked the door and in one swift movement ended up face flat on the couch, mumbling something about how you felt like you hadn’t slept properly in a decade. Which, is most likely accurate. However, you didn’t have enough time to dote on it before you drifted off to sleep.

You were awoken the next morning by the sound of a bird screeching at your window. You rose your upper body, still nestled on the couch. You grumbled quietly, finding it hard to open your eyes with the sun’s morning light shining through the windows. Especially this early in the morning.

You rolled your shoulders as you gently stood up from the couch. Carefully, you walk to the kitchen and start making some pancakes. Friday, at last. You thought you wouldn’t make it this far.

You yawned, waiting for the butter to melt as you lazily spread it across the pan. Sighing, you poured the batter into the pan and waited for it to cook? Bake? Whatever the case, you were barely functioning that morning.

As the pancakes finished cooking, you slid them onto a plate and slid similarly into a chair. (don’t even make a joke about that sentence, otherwise, I will personally see to it that your life is ended) Quietly, you ate breakfast, not thinking much. Barely awake.

You finished your morning routine with some difficulty and were halfway out the door when you got a call. You groaned as you picked it up. “Y/N Starr, who is this?”

“Y/N! I have the day off, once you finish work want to grab a coffee?”

Thank gods for Ignatia and her bubbly attitude, however, you don’t think she realizes how late you work.

“Thank you for the offer, Ignatia, but I don’t think anyone likes midnight coffee.”

There was a brief silence on the other line before light laughing. “Noon, then. I’ll physically strangle you if you don’t stop working your ass off by the time I’m there.” You chuckled lightly at her words.

“It’s a deal, I’ll see you there.” You hung up on her and climbed out of the elevator, walking outside into the cool fall air. It was quickly becoming October. Hm, maybe you should talk to Alphys soon. You’ll text her later, you two really need to talk more.

Nearly at the lab, you felt someone tap your shoulder. You turned around with a “hm?” It was a small man, he was wearing a beige jacket.  
“Y/N Starr?” He asked nervously.

You nodded. “That’s me.”

“Do you- Do you mind if I ask you a couple questions?” He asks. You turned around to face the lab for a second and then glanced back in his direction.

“I’m sorry, sir, but I’m afraid I’m very busy.” You gave him a weak smile in return.

He nodded. “I-I understand, thank you Ms. Starr-” He scurried off. You let out a breath and continued into the lab.

During the day, you had attempted to start on your script, in advance, but got too preoccupied with youtube, and occasionally Karl’s failed attempts at experiments. By the time Ignatia arrived, you were glad you had someone to talk to since you were bored beyond wits.

“N/N Are you coming or not-” She said, standing in the doorway. You unplugged your earbuds.

“Sorry wha-” You started. She grumbled and shut your laptop. You chuckled and shoved your stuff away. “Okay okay,” You gladly walked out of that room that smelled like complete filth.

“Sorry we haven’t talked as much, work has been time-consuming.” She apologized, shifting the glasses on her red flame-head.

“It’s alright, I’ve been sort of preoccupied as well.” You replied back, opting for the elevator rather than the stairs. Ignatia got in behind you and seemed grateful you both didn’t have to walk down the stairs.

“How’ve you been? I go for two months, and suddenly you make this huge discovery without me.” She chuckles. You smile, not quite a laugh.

“Trust me, I’m ready for the excitement to be over already.”

“I feel you. What’s this whole thing you made, anyway?”

“It’s a disease prevention medicine, if you’re close enough to death, H1427 can be administered and it will prevent whatever is killing the human or monster for a while. A couple years, estimated. If the monster/human is dying by disease or sickness, hopefully, it will provide enough time to let the body learn to fight the disease better or even overcome it. However, if it is heart failure? Inevitably they will die after a couple years. Or so, it has been estimated. Most of this is based on theory and such.

“It focuses on soul energy, using the souls' magical properties to keep the physical or magical form alive. I’m still working on improving it, however.” You explained, in a giant breath. By the time you finished explaining, you were already standing in front of a small cafe.

“Do you plan to name, whatever it’s called- H1427?” She pressed.

“There’s a chance, I haven’t come up with a good-...name…yet...” Your words trailed off as you saw something, or rather someone in the corner of your eyes.

A tall figure, with a long black trench coat, a grey turtleneck, and black long pants. He was carrying a stack of papers, and he towered at above 6’0”. This skull, the two cracks, there was no mistaking it. He scanned you for the briefest second. There was this look in his eyes. Not quite recognition, but not confusion.

“Y/N?” Ignatia asked. Your eyes (Your eyes and his pinpricks???) locked for a second, before he continued walking, past you. You turned around to watch him walk for a second. Did he recognize you? What was with that look?

You cleared your throat and looked back at Ignatia. “Let’s go in,” You said, pushing open the door and releasing a breath you had been holding (again). “I need a break.” You mumbled, walking into the coffee shop after Ignatia, sneaking one last glance at the path before closing the door behind you. The jingling sound all but dragging you back to reality again.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3.

(Swearing Warning)

“I have been thinking,” You started, but shook your head, forgetting what you were going to say. You sat down by the window in the cafe, watching the people stroll by outside. The fall leaves gently drifting in the air beside everyone. You watch intently, focusing your attention on the leaves rather than the people, and the monsters. This was one of the more monster populated parts of Ebott City. Ebott City is huge, but in the end, people still feel the need to mark and label.

Ignatia sat down on the other side of the table, shifting her chair forwards a bit and crossing her legs. She slid the coffee along the table with ease, and without blinking or unfocusing your attention, you caught it in one hand and stopped its movement. Ignatia took a sip of her coffee and cleared her throat. Gently, you snapped out of your thoughts and replied with a “hm?” to her.

“Mind explaining what that was all about?” She asks, referring to whatever the fuck just happened outside maybe 5 minutes ago.

“Good question,” You ponder, sipping your coffee and staring back outside. There was a silence.

“Well, after a long-awaited return, I am back,” She chuckles. You smile back turning back towards her.

“Took you long enough,” You chuckle. It’s been a sort of up and down year ever since she went to study in Paris. You were glad she was back, nonetheless.

“I see I’ve missed a lot,” you don’t know which specific thing she is alluding to, there’s a lot she could be referring to. You brushed it off as generalizing.

“I suppose.” You took a small sip of your coffee. “How’ve you been, anyway?” You smiled, putting the coffee back down. She smiled back.

“We have a lot to talk about.”

For the next hour or two, you two chatted idly, it was nice to have her back after all this time. Catching up on each other’s lives.

“Thanksgiving is coming up soon, huh?” She changed the subject, randomly.

“Yeah, I suppose it is. I’ll have to ask Alphys if she’s free. Speaking of which, you two should probably meet. You’d get along great.” You smiled. “Uh here, We can arrange a time to meet up?”

“Sure!” Ignatia replied. “Though… are they okay with monsters?”

You laughed, forgetting for a second you hadn’t even mentioned Alphys was a monster. “What’s so funny?” Ignatia chuckled lightly.

“Sorry, sorry, I just forgot to tell you that Alphys is a monster. She’s the Royal Scientist. Or- one of them,” You murmured the last part under your breath, not knowing what was going on with the royal family and whatnot anymore. A smile tugged at your lips as you watched Ignatia go from orange flame to red flame.

“You mean THAT Alphys?” She wiped her mouth, having nearly choked on the sandwich she was eating.

“I’m pretty sure there aren’t many ‘Alphys’’,” You chuckled.

“Yeah, I’d love to meet her.” She agreed.

“Great!”

You two parted ways out of the coffee shop and you got to texting Alphys.

You: Hey, what’s up. Another anime marathon?

She responded almost instantly.

Alphys: You bet! Mew Mew is on!

You: You mind if I bring along a friend? She’s also a big fan of anime.

Alphys: Sure

You: Tomorrow?

Alphys: Yup! See you then

You smiled and sigh.

You: Alright, see you then.

Gently, you closed your phone and head further down the sidewalk, waiting patiently at a crosswalk.

You tapped your foot anxiously on the sidewalk, thinking impatiently about anything. Unlike yourself, your mind drifted off to the topic of the future, not in a rush. The pedestrian light turned green on the other side of the crosswalk, allowing you to walk and not get run over.

Scenarios ran in your mind, what would happen if this, or that. What would the future be like? It gave you a small sense of unease, knowing you wouldn’t be able to plan out anything anymore. Knowing when something would happen was your strong suit. You were never amazing at improvising.

You reached the lab in a good enough time, still finishing your coffee. You glided across the tiled floor, sweeping the empty cup into a trash can, and into the elevator. You pressed the button idly, lost in thought.

You yawned gently into the palm of your hand, groaning as you rolled your shoulders. You slowly drifted your hand to your phone. 21:47. You rubbed your eyes tiredly, glancing around the room. You bit your lip and sighed. “Maybe I’ll go home early today,” You thought aloud, with nobody to hear it.

You slid your stack of notes into your bag, grabbed your phone and took the ID hanging from your neck into your hand. You walked sleepily out of the room and locked the door behind you. You watched from afar through the glass side of the hallway as the storm thundered outside. Fall showers, you supposed. You sighed and continued walking along the long corridor, opting to take the stairs today.

Your footsteps echoed silently against the marble, as you attempted to pull yourself out of your thoughts.

You exited the building, sliding your ID to lock it.

You stared up at the calm rain, it was neither harsh nor too calm. Just, there. It was a relaxing sight, to say the least. You opened the umbrella you brought with you this morning, of the weather. You sighed and walked quietly along the sidewalk, it was quiet. Dark, and quiet.

In the cracks of one edge of the sidewalk was a tiny golden flower. It stood there, withstanding the rain while all the other flowers dropped down saggily. You gently bent down to observe it for a second. “Tough little flower.” You mumbled.

In a split second, the flower grew a bit more, a face appearing on its face. “Howdy!” It smiled. You sprung back ever so slightly, having a mini heart attack.

“Dear God! I didn’t expect that.” You replied, bending back down. “Do you have a name? Or am I just hallucinating?”

“You’re not hallucinating, Y/N!” The flower smiled. You were about to ask how it knew your name, then you remembered your ID, slung around your neck once more. You huffed a light internal laugh. “My name’s Flowey- Flowey the flower!”

“Well hello, Flowey. Are you a-” You started, before the flower’s face dropped.

“Who’s your friend.” They started. You looked behind you. Nothing but idle rain.

“What friend-” You questioned, being cut off by looking back over your shoulder at Flowey, to see he wasn’t there anymore.

“Huh.” You replied thoughtfully, stepping over the crack gently, and continuing to walk, swearing you could see the shadows on the walls moving.

You awoke the next morning once again on the couch, your glasses somewhere on the floor, and papers scattered on the coffee table in front of you. You shoved yourself off the couch and yawned. Saturday. Dear god, thank lords for Saturdays.

You rolled your shoulders and got up, feeling decently rested (for once-). You stretched and got up to go get the mail, not even bothering with putting on shoes. You sighed and opened the door, to find a newspaper and some letters on your doormat. You picked them up and closed the door with your foot, once inside.

You slapped the mail down on the kitchen counter, opting to read the letters that had no use, first.

“Apply for college loans… Sign up to become a member of…. Ugh,” You threw the letters away as soon as you saw the junk.

At the bottom of the pile was a letter, closed with one of those medieval like ink stamps that had no place in the current time era. You opened the letter with a raised eyebrow and skimmed it carefully.

Ah, the ceremony letter. Ebott City is sure a weird place, sometimes.

“...will be held on November 26th, 2025.” You choked. That was 2 or so weeks away from today, not to mention the very day before Thanksgiving. Could they do that? You sighed and took the magnets on your fridge, putting it up there, the date circled in red. As a friendly reminder, this thing was coming up. You threw the rest of the letters away and took the newspaper, skimming through it gently.

You tossed it aside and opted to instead listen to the news on the TV. You opted for scrambled eggs and turned on the TV gently.

“-This medicinal product could save thousands of lives,” Ah, so they finally got to that story. One day, they’ll let it rest. “Created by Y/N Star, youngest of the Starr family,” The man onscreen started, before being interrupted by another lady.

“I was sure waiting for that girl to finally do something, her sisters are well known for their stunts. I had my bets on before 30!” The TV crew laughed fakely, while you blinked un-amusedly.

“Before 30? Am I really getting that old?” You stared down at your hands before looking back up at the TV. You were only 27, you had plenty of time.

“I for one, hope they won't need it for me anytime soon!” The man laughed fakely, once more. “What do you think, Janet?” He pointed to a silvery blonde haired woman, makeup caked all over her face, her face’s skin tone not even matching her neck. You chuckled. You knew a girl name Janet back in high school, she was the ultimate mom of the friend group.

“Well, I want to see what’s going to happen next! Maybe she’ll do something about the CORE,” she started.

You let out a genuine laugh, wheezing a little, “Keep dreaming, lady.” You said, laughing a little as the lady hoped too highly.

“As if,” A paler brunette spoke up, “I doubt that Dr. Gaster would let another Starr anywhere near him,”

You wheezed at that one, laughing wholeheartedly, remembering your conversation with Amber. “Who wrote that script? Amber? Jules?” You chuckled genuinely. The news crew let out a genuine laugh at the brunettes joke.

“On a different note; the weather. Thanksgiving is coming up and mother nature doesn’t seem to be taking any chances. It’ll be-” you shut off the TV, bored already. You picked at the scrambled eggs you were making, waiting for it to finish cooking. You decided you might as well tell Amber about the whole ceremony date and all.

You pressed your phone to your ear.

“Hh Amber StarR here, what is it?” You thought by now she would’ve saved your number. Was she- hungover?

“Hi Amber, drink too many martini’s last night?” You chuckled. She groaned on the other side of the phone.

“Is this going to become a morning thing? You calling me just as I wake up?” She groaned, annoyed.

“Only if you make it.” You shot back lightly.

“What’s up?” She knew you had a reason for calling her.

“Got the letter.” Simply, you replied.

“Ah, when’s the date?”

“The 26th,” You said with a light huff, picking at the scrambled eggs on your plate.

“You’ve got to be kidding me, the day before Thanksgiving? Unbelievable!”

“Welcome to the Ebott City Council.” Sarcastic, monotone delivery.

“Trust me, I went to one of their monthly meetings once, slept through half of it. Never doing that again.” A light chuckle followed on the other side of the phone

You let out a small laugh. “Sounds thrilling.”

“Extremely. Look, I gotta get-” There was a retching sound on the other side of the phone and a light groan. “-ready for work.”

You snickered. “Alright, don’t pass out on the road.”

There was a grumble, and like that, she hung up.

You chuckled lightly and put your phone back into your pocket. Sliding the dish in the sink to be washed later, and grabbing your keys and coat on the way out. You shuffled to put on your shoes as you exited your apartment, and locked the door behind you.

You were halfway out your building when the flower; Flowey, if you remembered correctly, sprouted up in front of you, back in the sidewalk crack.

“Howdy!” It smiled.

You let out a breath. “Hi, Flowey.” You mumbled, tugging on your coat.

“Boy, you seem excited today.” Despite his cheerful tone, you could feel the sarcasm.

“Yup.” You replied back, monotonously, you were already halfway down the sidewalk, when the flower appeared in front of you again, forcing you to halt in your tracks.

You huffed a bit. “Yes?”

“Yes?” The flower questioned back.

“What do you need from me?”

“Golly! I almost forgot. You have something I want.” The flower appeared behind you in the sidewalk again. “But you don’t have it. Yet.”

“And what is that thing you want?” You asked, raising an eyebrow as you pushed yourself off the ground.

The flower smiled evilly, squinting, and his smile widening. He grinned at you. “Well, that would ruin the surprise, wouldn’t it, Y/N Starr?” He faced forwards again. “Golly, you must be so confused. Don’t worry, you’ll figure out soon enough!” And with that, he ducked underneath the sidewalk again. Leaving you speechless, and not able to reply.

“Okay, flower.” You mumbled, stepping over the cracks with hesitance.

On the way to the store, you made sure to step over all the cracks, in case this flower decided to let you know what the heck it was talking about.

You picked up the phone while swiping through the items you had picked up at the grocery store. “Hello?” Maybe you should stop pulling an Amber, and save some contacts on your phone, as well.

“Y/N!” Alphys replied, a little bit of impatience in her voice, but otherwise cheerful.

“Oh hey Alph, I’ll be right over. I just have to- thank you- drop off some groceries at home.” You reply, the phone pressed between your shoulder and groceries weighing you down, and occupying both of your hands.

“Is Ignatia there yet?” You asked her, slinging the two bags of groceries into one hand and using your dominant hand to hold the phone. You had told Alphys about Ignatia and who to look for.

“Not- Not yet,” She stuttered, a shuffling heard, presumably from opening a window.

“Okay, I’ll see you the- speak of the devil. See you later.” You hung up, nearly at your house, when you saw Ignatia standing in front of the door, she had on a black fluffy jacket, some jeans and a pair of converse. You hung up the phone quickly and smiled at her.

“Let me put this inside and then we can go.” You said, shuffling up the stairs to your apartment.

“Need some help?” She replied, backing away from your door, towards you. You shook your head.

“I’m good.” You one handedly struggled to open the door.

You set the two bags of groceries with a thump on the table and exited your apartment as quickly as you got in.

You locked the door and lead the way down the stairs, and unlocked the main door.

You closed the door behind you and started to walk, pausing when you saw a golden flower. It wasn’t Flowey, but it looked similar. Ignatia noticed your hesitance and began to walk alongside you.

“What was that about?” She started. Maybe you should tell her about the talking flower?

“Ever heard of a...talking flower?”

“Oh! Like the Echo flowers, right?”

“No, not exactly.”

“No?”

‘“Echo flowers they...repeat what they last heard. I mean like a talking golden flower. They speak on their own? Have a face?”

“I don’t know of any. Why?”

“There’s been one that ...keeps showing up. It has a face, speaks on its own. He kind of speaks like the king, in a way.” You stared at the cracks in the sidewalk, kicking the occasional rock. “He… showed up earlier. Said something about wanting something I had. From what I remember, his words were, ‘Golly! I almost forgot. You have something I want. But you don’t have it. Yet.’ It’s creepy, you know? Sorry, I’m rambling,” You looked back up. “You must think I’m crazy,-”

Ignatia rolled her eyes. “Honey, please. I’ve seen some crazy shit in my life, a talking’ golden flower isn't goin’ tah change anythin’. Whatever the flower wants, I don’t think it’s too importan’, don’t worry about it, Y/N,” She reassured, stuffing her gloved hands in her pockets. She keeps those gloves on as to not burn anyone.

You nodded quickly and sighed. “Whatever you say- Ah! Here we are.” Desperate for a change of subject, you ran up to the small apartment building. It was small in size, painted red with a black roof. The door was plain, but the mailbox, recognizable, to say the least. It was bright pink, had cat ears and a tail on it, and had stickers printed all over it. Yup, this was Alphys’ apartment.

You knocked on the door in a partial rush. There was a shuffling, and a clicking. Alphys, the small yellow lizard monster opened the door. She wore her regular lab coat, with a regular T-shirt and pants underneath (I dONT KnOW to hELP mE oUT hEre-). She let you in, “Oh- Hey- Hey Y-Y/N!” She nervously greeted you, You nod your head.

“Hey Alph, this is my other anime-crazed friend,” You gestured for her to come in. Ignatia smiled and held out her hand, Alphys hesitantly took it.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Ignatia,”

“Alp- Alphys,” Alphys replied.

“You- You mean this is the first- the first time you’ve ever- ever seen Mew Mew Kissy Cutie?” Alphys half screamed, nearly dropping the bowl of popcorn. After just finishing the first movie of Mew Mew Kissy Cutie, it was safe to say that Alphys wasn’t expecting that from Ignatia.

Ignatia held her hands up. “I'd never heard of it before today-” She started, trying to defend herself.

“Oh my- oh my god, we have a lot of catching up to- up to do,” Alphys replied, sitting back down normally. You chuckled, adjusting your sitting on the couch to be more comfortable.

Alphys started the second movie when Ignatia got a barrage of texts. You stared at her. “Amber,” She replied simply. You nodded.

“You two are relationship goals, sometimes.” You replied, reaching for the popcorn bowl.

“More than you'll ever be. You’ve been single since high school.” She joked. You bit your lip and tugged at the collar of your sweater.

“Yeah, high school,” You murmured. You cleared your throat. “And that affects you how?” Changing moods a little quicker than expected.

“It doesn’t, but it’s sad to see yah just kinda do nothin’. N/N, I love yah and all but man are you lonely.” She joked, you laughed a little.

“Why is everyone so suddenly interested in my love life recently? Just yesterday, Amber asked me if I had found anyone yet (oh boy,) and now you, Ig’.” You chuckled.

“She’s- she’s right you kn-know, you’re the l-loneliest person I-I know,” Alphys stuttered, and chuckled a bit.

“Thanks, Alph.” You thought of a way to change the conversation. “How’s Undyne by the way?” You added in, knowing once Alphys started talking about her girlfriend, she wouldn’t stop. “I haven’t seen her since she once tried to teach me how to cook. Long story short, the fire department was called.” Ignatia snorted and Alphys’ eyes light up a bit.

“O-Oh! Well, she-” Alphys started, none of you really focusing too much on the movie anymore, and just enjoying a regular hangout. The peace was nice, for what it was worth. Hopefully you'd be able to enjoy more of these in the future. You could only dream.

It was 10pm, and you were lounging on the couch, watching whatever was on TV, bored beyond wits, but not wanting to do anymore work. It was Saturday, not Monday. You intended on enjoying it.

“Hello?” You picked up your buzzing phone, pausing the movie on TV.

“Y/N! Have you started on your speech yet?” Amber tapped in, on the other side of the phone. You groaned and sat up straight.

“No, not yet. It’s in 2 weeks, Amber.”

“Two weeks is a lot shorter than you think it is! Look, start on it now or else I will come over there and personally see to it that you do it. Next week I’m dragging Jules away from work whether she likes it or not and we’re practicing so you’re not a hopeless mess on stage.” Amber lectured you.

“Can’t I just backou-” You started.

“No!” She cut you off.

You groaned in defeat. “Fine, fine.” You said, pulling out your laptop and opening a new google doc. “I’m starting on it.”

“Good.” She said and hung up. You grumbled and started on the script.

The next Friday rolled around, 7 or so days before you had to go up on stage, and with much reluctance, Amber woke you up, before you could sneak off to work. Even Jules was stubbornly sitting on the couch, all but too clear in her expression that she did not want to do this. You didn’t either, so you pardoned her on that one.

Amber dragged you down the stairs, grasping your wrist too firmly for comfort, and putting in all the work of movement for you. Since you had woken up a solid 3 minutes ago.

“Please just let me showerr,” you begged, feeling disgusting, frankly.

Once you were on the couch, struggling to keep your eyes open, Amber clapped her hands. “Alright! You have three things to remember,”

“Hhhhngh, can I please just have breakfast-” you tried, Amber shook her head.

“In a bit, just let me-” Amber started.

Already, you were done with this, getting up to go make yourself some cereal. Jules pulled you down back onto the couch by the arm.

“Okay, are you going to listen to me?”

“Maybe when I’m awake,” You yawned, rubbing your eyes tiredly.

“Fine, you have an hour. Where’s the TV remote.” Amber grumbled, knowing you weren’t going to budge. You pointed to the table where the remote was and tiredly walked upstairs to do your daily morning routine.

An hour later, you felt a bit more awake. “Are you going to listen now?”

You let out a small yawn. “Possible. Don’t make it too boring, go easy on me,” you chuckled. “That’s what-” You started, under your breath when Jules cleared her throat.

“Don't.” She started. You let out a laugh that definitely made you sound like you were drunk.

“Okay, like I WAS saying,” Amber continued. ”Three things, number one, look up at the crowd and not always at your paper, look at your paper when you absolutely must.” she started. This whole thing seemed so official. You were really doing this. Butterflies erupted in your stomach, you could feel panic rising up in your throat. You calmly shoved it back down though, but you knew it was there, nagging at you no matter what you did.

“Number two, Speak loudly, and clearly. There may be a microphone but you have to speak loud enough so that people actually hear you. Separate each word from the next, make sure that the audience can understand you.” Jules added.

“Number three, don’t sweat it- I’m sure this whole thing will be forgotten in a week, so don’t stress too much over it.” Amber finished.

You nodded and exhaled trying to keep this information in mind.

Okay, look at the crowd, speak loudly and clearly, and don’t be too panicky. Got it.

You exhaled again and cleared your throat. Looking at your two sisters.

God damn, I wish I was like them… Pretty, smart, no need for always being nervous, so calm and collected. Jeez if only. Guess I’m stuck like, I suppose. you internally wished.

Deep breaths, you made sure to remind yourself. Deep breaths.

Hours upon hours of absolute torture later, (“No no no- don’t stutter!” “I forbid you from saying Um.” “Y/N it is 1, you JUST had lunch.” “You have had 23 bathroom breaks, sit back down.”) Jules and Amber finally left. And as soon as they were gone, you were immediately immersed in your laptop watching what other recognition ceremonies looked like.

You concluded one thing from several more hours of watching endless ceremonies like yours on YouTube: You weren’t going to last a millisecond onstage. There were so many people- so much clapping. You could feel your heart race the speed of light.

You were doomed. And what if somebody important shows up and sees you being a stuttering mess? Your career would be ruined! And what if- your worries were cut off by a loud doorbell.

You slowly got up and opened the door hesitantly. Nobody was there. Only the apartment hallway.

You looked around carefully and shook your head. About to close the door you heard a loud distorted sound. You whipped your head to look back outside the door at the hallway in front of your apartment. But as soon as you turned to look, the sound stopped. You made a mental note to visit a hearing doctor about that later. You shut the door without the staticky sound appearing as you made your way back to the couch.

Groaning, you ran your hands across your face, tired. So tired. One week of this, you had a long way to go.

You wished Thursday came slower, the constant work on the speech, and the notion that you were actually terrible at speeches, plus Amber and Jules constant screaming at you was MUCH preferable over the nervousness you were facing now. As you lied in bed, staring up at the ceiling, you wondered if this was really worth it. Maybe you could just, back out. You were one out of the few people going up today, you had others sharing the same fate as you.

The thought calmed you down ever so slightly. However, it was quickly replaced by Amber bursting into your room, like she had done every day since Friday. “Y/N wake up!” Amber shook you again. This was becoming routine, you thought sourly. 

“Is this going to become routine? You wake me up with dire news every morning?” you groaned turning over to the side seeing your sister grumbling at you. 

“Only if you make it.” She replied. You chuckled before sighing. “Plus, you did this to me for a whole week during my ceremony process, you know it’s only right of me to get revenge,” she smiled evilly at you. You snorted slightly and got up. 

You yawned stretching your hands above your head before slouching down and rubbing your eyes, “When’s the ceremony?” 

“In four hours, we have to be there in 3.” You groaned. 

“Great...only 5 more hours till this whole ordeal is over and I can go back to being a couch potato.” You mumbled. Amber snorted. “What’s so funny, may I ask?” 

“Well, this ‘whole ordeal’ won't ever be over, sorry to break it to ya’ but once you get this award everyone will think you’re like the next Einstein and will expect that of you.” 

“I have you and Jules to thank for that.” 

“Always glad to help.” Amber beamed. You chuckled and got up. “Now c’mon, Jules is waiting so we can practice again.” 

“Again? Can I just have 3 hours to mentally prepare myself?” 

“Nope.”

You groaned loudly and huffed a sigh of defeat. “Well, I tried. Now shoo, I have to take a shower.” Amber shuddered.

“TMI.”

“Shut.” You groaned tiredly walking towards the bathroom.

You walked out half an hour later, in no rush. “C’mon Y/N, wake up already! We have work to do!”

“I’m no perfect human being, I need at least another hour to wake up.”

“Too bad. We’re getting last minute practising in.” She crossed her arms.

“Fun.” You muttered to yourself, walking down the stairs, already in a sour mood.

You stood backstage, nervously holding a script in your hands, clutching it to your chest. “They couldn’t have given me an option if I wanted this?!” You whisper-shouted angrily to Jules.

“You know Ebott City- no such thing as choices here.” Jules tried to comfort you but failed at doing so. It was sort of funny on the other hand.

“Wow what a meaningful message about the city I live in and spent most of my life in.” You grunted.

You heard loud applause followed by some muffled speaking. More applause. Your heart was pounding in your chest. A guy ushered you up onstage.

You slowly walked upstage and stared at the crowds of people there were. Your mind stopped working entirely and you froze so badly you could’ve renamed yourself to an ice sculpture.

You walked up onstage quietly and stared out at the giant audience. Well shit, you thought, staring at the larger than expected crowd. This is not what I expected. Anxiety settled in, and you were about to go back into the tent, and ask, no, DEMAND, that you don’t go.

But you didn’t. Instead, you walked up to the podium and shuffled the papers into order on the stand. You breathed slightly, before starting to speak.

“I remember when I was still a child. Maybe, 10 or so.” You cleared your throat. “I was with Amber, in the backyard of my house, my home. She was 11, barely. She took the beaker we had just poured random chemicals in hoping they would work and poured it into another randomly mixed liquid. The result? Our skin was green for a week, I looked like female Shrek.” The lightest laugh rang out. You forced a small smile.

“I remember watching the explosion, from the beakers and onto us. Even when the experiment had gone horribly wrong, I still stared at the beaker, starry-eyed. Amber was having a coughing fit, but besides that.” You smiled a bit wider. “That was the first time I knew I wanted to do something in the scientific career in my life.” You took the microphone from the stand and started pacing slightly on the stand.

“Now, It wasn’t until possibly college until I knew I wanted to pursue chemistry specifically. Something about it made it seem magical, almost, to me. I was 20, maybe.” You glanced down at your papers, then looked back up. You could do this, Jules, Amber, Ignatia, everyone believed in you. You breathed.

“My entire life I wanted to be known as Y/N, not Starr. I wanted to, be remembered. Do something...great. I guess all kids dream of that, but I stuck with my dream. I knew it was possible if I just tried. Then the monsters were released from mount Ebott. Of which I had been climbing since I was a child. Wondering if there was something in there. Then, Jules figured out how to regrow limbs. Can you believe it? I was shocked.”

You chuckle under your breath a bit. “She sat us down at the table one day and said, ‘Amber, Y/N, I did it!’ She was so happy, and I was happy for her, too.” You glanced back at Jules. “She had done something incredible, and it gave me hope that maybe one day, I could too.”

“This...product. I had the idea in the back of mind for the longest time. ‘What if I could create something to counter death?’ It took 3 weeks, but I had done it.”

“I remember the day I received the letter, I was scared beyond wits, and Karl, who had the most solemn look in his eyes, he handed me the paper. At the bottom of the paper, 5 magical words. ‘Your medicine has been approved.’ I was overjoyed. I had done it, I had done something amazing. My life’s dreams were coming true.”

“Now, I lie in bed. Now what? I ask. I hadn’t actually planned to get this far. I asked Amber. ‘What now? Now that it’s over?’ She looked at me and said, ‘Over? Y/N, it’s never over. You’ve just begun the journey to greatness.’ I-” You started, looking down at the script, deciding to do that improvising you had planned on earlier.

“What I’m trying to say, I guess, is that it’s never impossible to achieve the impossible. I have Jules, and Amber to thank for that. It’s an honour, but I wouldn’t be here without them. Thank you.” You put the microphone back, standing still for a second. For a split second, you thought they wouldn’t applause, like you had made some mistake to not want applause. Then one person started clapping, like in those movie-like scenes, then another person followed, clapping. And then applause. You breathed in relief and curtseyed. Until they stopped, and then you ran out.

You gave a small smile to everyone. “I think I’ve had enough for one day.” You replied, tired. Everyone looked at each other and nodded.

You would think by midnight after all that stress was relieved about the whole ceremony, you would be able to sleep easier. But, at 00:02, you were still awake. You tossed to the other side of the bed and decided that you weren’t able to sleep. Thanksgiving was tomorrow, or rather, today. A walk would probably help clear your mind, and allow you to sleep better.

You lightly tugged on a coat and walked down the stairs. You walked outside your building and then outside the main building.

Opening the door, you were met with a chilly breeze, forcing you to pull yourself in more. If you had any doubts, it was definitely November. Surprisingly enough, most of the leaves on the trees in the park in front of your building had not fallen.

It was a relatively quiet walk through the park, the occasional sound of the wind drifting through the air. Mostly silence. You exhaled and watched as your breath froze in the air, for a split second. You remember the day when you were young when it got so cold outside you could swirl your breath in the air. It was just like magic, that day.

A smile tugged at your lips, you never realized just how real magic would become one day.

You breathed, running the edge of your fingertips within the water, despite the feeling of cold on cold it was relaxing, to watch every water droplet working in harmony to create a waterfall of water.

It was like magic.

You sighed and took your freezing hand out of the water and instead looked at the sky.

The stars were the best part, they always were. They glistened in the sky, no matter how many lights were turned off, they always made their own light.

Light streaked across the night sky. One you hadn’t seen for a while, a shooting star. You remember wishing upon one when you were younger, though the entire memory was very hazy whenever you tried to recall it. Shooting stars, people associated them with luck and wishing, correct? If so then it’s the only tradition to make a wish, yourself. You thought to close your eyes gently.

“I wish…” You shut your eyes tightly thinking.

“I wish……”

“I wish for a chance at something more,” you finally decided on. It wasn’t very specific, but it would have to do.

You opened your eyes to being surrounded in a blue misty tornado of photographs of what looked like memories that weren’t yours. You seemed to be levitating in a thick air bubble, your clothes and hair swirling as if in water, but not wet. Confused, you reached out and grabbed one photograph. The photo gently settled in your hand and when you looked up you saw the memory being played in front of you.

It was you, but older. Your hair was long and you could spot the maturity, in how you stood up straight, how you used your hands while talking. This had to be at least a year in advance.

You glanced over at the person you were talking to.

Their face was glitched out in a white glitch.

You grumbled disappointedly.

You were talking to the person, you were laughing. You seemed...happy. Happy in a way you couldn’t describe. It wasn’t like you were never happy. No, you were mainly an optimist. However, this happy was a whole different level.

The aura you were emitting was full of it. You were laughing, smiling, enjoying this person's company. Who this person was though, was yet to be discovered. The memory paused and you let the photo get swept into the tornado.

Eager to see more moments with a similar aura you reached up into the tornado and grabbed another memory. You looked up at the picture playing. The entire thing was clear for a millisecond before glitching and a white glitch covers nearly the entire scene. You could only make out a hand holding a glass container. Containing what was too glitched out to see. You sighed and let go of the photo looking around.

You looked to the next memory, but instead...something weird happened.

All the versions of you, they turned to look directly at you in every photo. Their shoulders straight and all had a white glitch covering their face.

You looked around as a red =) face overlaid the white glitch.

“It seems…” A voice said from your right, you hurriedly turned to face them. They weren’t talking but their shoulders said they were the one unfrozen. They went back to their original position once they finished.

“We have encountered…” A voice said from your back, you saw a different one, eyeing you and leaning in with their hands behind their back.

“An anomaly.” One finished from your right. You watched as every photo glitched to black and all fell underneath you, you still stuck in the space that didn’t quite look like anywhere you knew. Everything seeped into blackness as you fell onto your side. You couldn’t see anything but could hear a distorted glitch.

“✋︎❄︎ 💧︎☜︎☜︎💣︎💧︎📬︎📬︎📬︎✌︎☠︎ ✌︎☠︎⚐︎💣︎✌︎☹︎✡︎ ☟︎✌︎💧︎ ☜︎☠︎❄︎☜︎☼︎☜︎👎︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎ ✞︎⚐︎✋︎👎︎📬︎ 🕈︎☜︎☹︎👍︎⚐︎💣︎☜︎📪︎ ☜︎☠︎☺⚐︎✡︎ ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎☼︎ 💧︎❄︎✌︎✡︎📬︎ ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎ ✌︎☼︎☜︎ ☝︎⚐︎✋︎☠︎☝︎ ❄︎⚐︎ 👌︎☜︎ ☟︎☜︎☼︎☜︎ ✌︎☹︎⚐︎☠︎☜︎ ☞︎⚐︎☼︎ ✌︎ 📬📬📬 💧︎☟︎⚐︎☼︎❄︎ 🕈︎☟︎✋︎☹︎☜︎📬︎

✡⚐🕆🕯☼☜ 🕈✌😐✋☠☝📬

✋︎🕯☹︎☹︎ 💧︎☜︎☜︎ ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎ ⚐︎☠︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎ ⚐︎❄︎☟︎☜︎☼︎ 💧︎✋︎👎︎☜︎📪︎ ✡︎📭︎☠︎📬︎”

You stared at the glitch in utter confusion, waking up not a second later.

You shook your head slightly awake, you still stood by the fountain, watching the water flow. You rubbed your eyes slightly and wondered if you blacked out for a second. You don’t remember. You sighed the unnerving thought away and decided that was enough for one day, you were sleepy enough as it is.

Enough for one day, you thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Windings Translation: 
> 
> I︎T︎ S︎E︎E︎M︎S︎.︎.︎.︎A︎N︎ A︎N︎O︎M︎A︎L︎Y︎ H︎A︎S︎ E︎N︎T︎E︎R︎E︎D︎ T︎H︎E︎ V︎O︎I︎D︎.︎ W︎E︎L︎C︎O︎M︎E︎,︎ E︎N︎JO︎Y︎ Y︎O︎U︎R︎ S︎T︎A︎Y︎.︎ Y︎O︎U︎ A︎R︎E︎ G︎O︎I︎N︎G︎ T︎O︎ B︎E︎ H︎E︎R︎E︎ A︎L︎O︎N︎E︎ F︎O︎R︎ A︎ ... S︎H︎O︎R︎T︎ W︎H︎I︎L︎E︎.︎
> 
> YOU'RE WAKING.
> 
> I︎'L︎L︎ S︎E︎E︎ Y︎O︎U︎ O︎N︎ T︎H︎E︎ O︎T︎H︎E︎R︎ S︎I︎D︎E︎,︎ Y︎/︎N︎.︎”
> 
> Anyways Thanks for reading! See you in the next Update!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4.

(Swearing Warning)

“Trust me on this,” You reassured Ignatia. “They’re a bit ...over the top once you meet them, but they get better!” Man, you really were awful at comforting. Everyone who’s ever spoken to you has acknowledged it, and now you are admitting to it too. Whatever the case, you hoped this dinner didn’t absolutely explode.

Jules based out of coming with you, because she found a way to opt-out of thanksgiving? Amber decidedly made the better option, and went with Thanksgiving at Karl’s, since Ignatia was coming with you. I guess the two decided they could spend Thanksgiving apart? Odd, but not too out of the ordinary, you supposed.

You rung the doorbell once more to the tall wooden house and was met with the short skeleton you knew all too well. “Heya, sans,” You replied with a smile, holding the gravy and cranberry sauce. You couldn’t cook anything else for the life of you. He smiled (is that possible? Since he’s always smiling- bruv idk anymore.)

“what’s up, kid? pap’ll be over soon, he’s getting groceries,” he lazily opened the door, letting you two inside. Already, Alphys and Undyne were on the couch, and Toriel was in the kitchen making the turkey with Frisk, the small human. Admittedly, you had only met Toriel and Frisk about once, but you were glad to see them again. “who’s your friend?” Sans asked, closing the door behind you, pointing with his skull towards where Ignatia went off with Alphys.

“Ignatia, a friend of mine. She doesn’t have anywhere to go, and Alphys agreed, so, hope you don’t mind,” You smiled nervously. He shrugged

“‘long as she doesn’t blow up everything in sight, we’re good,” he stated. You let out a heavy breath.

“Good to hear. Say, if Toriel is here, is Asgore going to come?” You pondered, walking further into the house, by the dining table.

“i, well, pap’s invited him, dunno if he’ll show,” he noted. You nodded.

“It’s been a long time, eh?” You nudged him in the ribs. “How’s Papyrus doing?” You asked.

There was a thump, and then heavy footsteps by the door. “you’re about to find out,” he mused.

With a loud thump, the tall skeleton wearing his regular attire burst through the door, FBI style, with groceries in hand. “SANS WHY WAS THE DOOR LOCKED?!” He addressed in his loud manner, emphasis on ‘was’.

“don’t want robbers and thieves.” he shrugged.

“THERE ARE NO ROBBERS OR THIEVES IN THIS NEIGHBORHOOD, SANS,” Papyrus concluded.

“how d’you know that?” Sans inquired.

“BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT THIEVES OR ROBBERS.” Specific, Papyrus decided, slamming the groceries down onto the counter, startling you slightly.

There was a small shout from the kitchen. “STIR HARDER!” Undyne bellowed. You resisted a joke, and instead opted to cough it out.

Sans’ phone dinged slightly, a notification. He opened it and grumbled. “What?” You questioned.

“ah, g ain’t comin’, said somethin’ about work,” he replied.

You let out a light laugh. “Jules and Gaster, both workaholics opting out of Thanksgiving. I can see why they get along.” Sans chuckled back along with you.

“best buddies,” he added on, you laughed a bit before calming down. The doorbell rung, causing you to lose grip on the table a little bit. You hurriedly stood back up straight, though. “must be asgore, i’ll go help paps in the kitchen, make sure he doesn’t blow anything up.” Sans said, walking over to the kitchen.

You walked gently to the door and opened it. As predicted, the giant goat monster stood in the doorway, probably as tall if not taller than the door itself. “Howdy, you must be Y/N,” Asgore concluded, stepping inside, holding a plate, with food on it, wrapped in aluminum foil. You nodded your agreement. (??????????????)

“The one and only. Er- do you need help with that?” You offered, seeing as he was carrying the majority of the soon to be a feast.

“Thank you for the offer, I can manage,” He nodded, before joining most of everyone in the kitchen. His footstep shook the floor a little bit, and you were thankful once he stopped moving. You nodded back, opting to sit on the couch, while everyone fiddled in the kitchen. Knowing you couldn’t cook for the life of you.

“Maybe I should change the channel. All I’ve heard is tragedy all day, I’d much prefer to listen to ☼♏︎♎︎♋︎♍︎⧫︎♏︎👎 screaming about lamb sauce for ten hours,” You pick up the remote and switch the channel, it’s relaxing to have the sound echoing in your living room, even if you and ☼♏︎♎︎♋︎♍︎⧫︎♏︎👎weren’t bothering to even pay attention to the TV. Just idle chatting. Calm, nice, idle chatting. That’s something you didn’t expect much, from anyone. Anymore.

“I for one, cannot cook for the life of me.” ☼♏︎♎︎♋︎♍︎⧫︎♏︎👎 speaks up, on the subject of Gordon Ramsay, “☼♏︎♎︎♋︎♍︎⧫︎♏︎👎 may be better at cooking than I am,” he compares. You hold back a snicker and bite your lip, shooting your hand up to cover your mouth. If ☼♏︎♎︎♋︎♍︎⧫︎♏︎👎 was better at cooking than ☼♏︎♎︎♋︎♍︎⧫︎♏︎👎, you made a mental note to not let him anywhere the kitchen.

“It must be pretty serious then. Sorry, ‘afraid I can’t cook either,” You smiled back at ☼♏︎♎︎♋︎♍︎⧫︎♏︎👎, the White Glitch covering his face-

You shook your head awake. That was an odd memory. Not yours, but it was set around your house. However, the memory and thoughts surrounding it were out as quick as they came in. A shout was heard distantly from the kitchen, from the distinguishable voice of Papyrus. You smiled to yourself, and placed the remote you forgot you were holding down back onto the coffee table. The old green couch making a jingling sound as you got up.

You let out a nervous laugh to yourself, glancing back at the couch and then to the kitchen. The kitchen in their house was much larger than what you gathered from your friends in the underground who were there with the skele-bros. At least, that’s what your circle of friends seemed to call them, anyways. ( “Oh my god, f-finally, we can s-sit - sit and actually eat- eat at a r-real dining table.” “My, how did you afford this?” “THANK GOD, I thought I was going to have to Stare at the sprinkles rock again.”) It was a regular kitchen, with a counter and bar stools, however with an extension to the right, with a dining table and some plants. Fake ones, considering neither of the bros could take care of a real plant. (“YOU MEAN PLANTS DON’T TAKE ORANGE JUICE WELL? WELL, THANK YOU FOR THIS ADVICE, SHORT HUMAN. BUT MY PLANT WILL SURVIVE. AFTER ALL, IT IS THE GREAT PAPYRUS’ PLANT!” the plant died shortly after)

You glanced at the dining table, Sans was the first to pull up a chair, the wood dragging the carpet underneath the dining table forwards. “whoops.” Papyrus and Toriel were chatting while bringing the food to the table, barely finished and probably steaming hot. Asgore and Frisk were on Dishes duty. Oh boy, you could already smell the jokes stemming from that. Alphys and Undyne were having an awkward conversation, judging by their faces. Ignatia fumbled a bit, and caught herself, bringing the last of the food to the table.

Yeah, Amber’s right sometimes. You need to relax every once in a while.

“Sounds like, despite all the fighting, you had fun?” You state, questioning yourself. You Frisk, and occasionally Sans, were talking about the Underground, and Frisk’s adventures. Frisk nodded eagerly, shoving more of Toriel’s pie into her mouth. She reminded you a little when you were younger. You chuckled. “Slow down there, the pie isn’t going anywhere,” You chuckle.

“Sorry,” She apologized, “Waterfall was my favourite, I liked the echo flowers.” Ah, the echo flowers. You vaguely remember having a conversation about them with Ignatia, once. When you didn’t show a response, Frisk continued. “The talking flower,” You had to muster up all your energy to not ask ‘Flowey?’

“Ah! I remember,” You respond, for further context.

“Yeah, it’s nice. I wish I could go back, maybe that goop man finally got out,” She mumbled, lost in thought about her adventures in the underground.

“Goop man?” You questioned with a small furrowed-eyebrows smile.

“Yeah, I remember this one hallway in Waterfall! It had this grey door that didn’t fit in at all, and behind it, there was this empty room, with this goop man in the middle. But when I tried to talk to him, he seemed startled and faded away. When I left the hallway, I went to go back, but the hallway was gone.” She explained casually, stuffing her face with more pie.

“Goop man, that seems startled you see him, huh?” You repeated, thinking about it, before deciding not to worry too much, and leave it as an afterthought.

There was a small cough, you stopped talking at first, thinking it was something. Then a louder cough followed. And when some people didn’t stop talking, a louder cough followed by a wheeze. Then everyone went silent. Sans stood up. He cleared his thr- his throat? Was that the proper term? You didn’t know.

“well i know i should make some big speech about like this year was great, but y’know how it is. anyways, i’m thankful you all made it, and it’s been a weird year together, not gonna lie, but uh, thankful for you all.” You nodded at his ‘speech’ as he sat back down.

Ignatia nudged you in the ribs, “Your turn.”

“Right,” You stood up and coughed a bit. “Well. It’s been a roller-coaster year, have to say, but I’m glad I met you all, I’m thankful that we survived this year, and I’m thankful that I haven’t been demolished by the media yet.” You sat back down bashfully, as Ignatia nodded at you.

“WHY DON’T WE COMMEMORATE THIS DAY WITH A SELFIE?” Papyrus suggested, standing back up. You shrug and turn to Ignatia, she shrugs back at you.

“That sounds like a wonderful idea!” Toriel spoke up, pushing aside her plate.

“a’ight,” Sans replied, pulling out his phone (Who even got him that?) and turning the camera.

Most of everyone stood up, and Undyne had to forcibly drag Alphys into the selfie. You and Ignatia crammed in the back, Frisk riding on Ignatia’s shoulders. You had to stand on a chair to get into the photo, it was crammed, and you were short.

“3, 2, 1-” And there was a click. You smiled brightly and awkwardly posed. You weren’t very photogenic, you had to admit. As soon as Sans put down his phone, everyone either sat back down to finish or grabbed their dish(es) and put it in the sink.

(3rd Person POV, following Gaster)

Papers were scattered all across the desk, the floor. A giant blueprint stretched from one end of the table to the other. Marked with different colour pens and pencils and other writing utensils over each other. He was tired beyond wits and really wanted to go home. But he couldn’t. Not until he finished this. He promised Queen Toriel, he promised King Asgore, he promised himself that he would finish it.

But, without luck, he wasn’t close to done. He was further behind than he expected. This wasn’t going well, and he kept running into dead ends. He doesn’t want to sleep, but he’ll keep making mistakes that he can’t see on his own if he doesn’t sleep. He’s on edge, truthfully. And conflicted.

Gaster’s phone dinged, and he turned it over, where it lay the screen down on the table. A text from Sans.

Sans: image.png

Sans: missed a lot, ‘bud.

He grunted, putting his phone down, ignoring the text. Picking up a different coloured marker to quadruple check for more mistakes.

About to start scanning the paper again, there was a knock at the door. “Yes?” He replied as composed as he could, considering how worn out he was. The door opened slightly, and Amber slipped through the crack.

“Wasn’t sure if you’d passed out by now.” She said, leaning against the door with her arms crossed. He huffed and turned back around to continue on the blueprints. “It’s Thanksgiving.” She stated as if he didn’t already know.

“Yes, I am quite aware of that.” He murmured.

As he continued to write on the blueprint, Amber cam up and pushed his hand away. “Gaster. For the love of God, it’s Thanksgiving. Sans and Papyrus are your brothers too.” She stood back up. “Just please go home.”

He grumbled. “I cannot, I have not finished-”

“Oh fuck off with your unfinished work, you’re not going to finish it overnight. Stop working for once in your goddamn life and go home, stay with your brothers for Thanksgiving.” She yelled, unaware and uncaring of how loud her voice was.

Gaster stopped for a moment and reluctantly dropped his pen. “As you wish.”

“No, not as I wish! This isn’t some kind of comma- oh my god. Fine.” Fed up, she opened the door with a swift motion and shut it angrily behind her. Gaster stared at the door for a moment, unblinkingly.

You had just finished up the last of the dishes. Turning to Papyrus, “Anything else I can do?” You asked. Sans spoke up before Papyrus could.

“yeah, get gaster to come back home but that’s outside your abilities,” Sans grumbled, sitting at the now cleaned dining table, leaning in his chair, sipping some ketchup.

“Sans, I’m sorry, but your bro is just trying to make a living-”

“n/n, it’s fine, he never comes home for thanksgiving. ever since he got out of the v- nevermind. Just go home, you’ve helped enough as it is, spend some time with your family.” He didn’t even bother to look up, continuing to stare at the blank wall, and sipping ketchup.

You lowered your eyebrows sympathetically and turned to Papyrus. “IT IS ALRIGHT, Y/N, WE’LL FINISH UP OURSELVES.” He offered a small smile (more of a smile than usual??????) in your direction. You nodded and started out of the kitchen.

Dangling off the side of the couch, your small messenger bag was closed, but you could see the papers starting to fall out. You grabbed the bag and slung it over one shoulder after putting on your (f/c) coat. You gently opened and closed the door once you were outside.

You walked out of the building and crossing the street to a small square. It was late, but lights in people’s apartments were open, people walked through the square casually chatting, and stores (a few) were still open. You enjoyed walking through the square peacefully for a bit.

A dark figure brushed past your shoulder. Looking up and back behind you, you saw Gaster walking rather quickly to his brothers' house, slumped and tired looking. You didn’t catch a glance of his face, but his height and the cracks on the back of his skull were unmistakable. You sighed, at least he was going home to his brothers. Sans would be a bit angry for being a bit late, but you hoped nothing too anger fielder took place.

You got home with relative ease, and flopped onto the kitchen countertop, eating some food Jules left by in a plastic bag. On the bag, a small sticky note.

You left your phone at home. I got home and stayed at Andrews for Thanksgiving. Amber pestered me until I did. Amber does what she thinks is good for us, though it might not always look like the right thing.

It was a nice moral, but you felt that had some meaning behind it. Whatever the case, you would find out eventually, one way or another. You opened the bag and grabbed the sandwich Jules had made for you and ate it. It was bland compared to the previous Thanksgiving feast. (which wasn’t too bad, considering Papyrus was one of the people- monsters? Cooking.)

You sighed and opted to watch the news until you were decently tired, and then went upstairs to bed. You fell asleep rather quickly, falling into a dreamless sleep.

“I do not need another assistant!” Gaster grumbled, pacing around the room. Asgore tried sympathetically.

“Gaster, please, you overwork yourself, and Jules and Amber do not always have the answers. Y/N specializes in the same field as you do-“ Asgore attempted, to no luck. Gaster pauses his pacing and stared at the monster king with bewilderment.

“Please do not even mention her name, I do not want to hear the last name Starr every again.” He continued, walking back to the countertop and scribbling more notes.

“She could learn a lot from you,” Asgore countered, walking up to Gaster.

“She will only slow me down.” He grumbled.

“Gaster, please, you could use the help. I do not want you overworking yourself. Amber and Alphys work very well together-“

“I do not care about Amber or Alphys work-relationship, I can do fine on my own,” His tone was getting angrier the longer they stood there, chatting.

Asgore placed a hand on his shoulder. “No, you cannot. Please just allow this girl a chance. If she doesn’t provide any assistance to you, then you may dismiss her.”

Gaster sighed reluctantly, knowing he wasn’t going to win this fight. “Fine, she will work under Alphys and if I deem her fit, she can work under me. Deal?” He stopped working for a minute and looked Asgore in the eyes. Asgore smiles and stuck out his paw. Gaster shook it, with his miniature compared hand.

“It is a deal.”

“KARL DID WHAT?!” You screamed, the cereal in your mouth spitting out. You had woken up a solid three minutes ago and were in the middle of making breakfast when Kathy called you.

“He blew up the lab-“ she started as if it was not obvious. You groaned tiredly.

“I’ll be there in 15, get everything out of the building, call the fire department.” You grumbled and hung up, slamming your phone against the kitchen countertop. You grumbled and pushed the cereal bowl aside, knowing you were going to eat it later. You didn’t even bother to throw on some decent clothes. You stuck your lab coat over your hoodie and pyjama pants and walked outside, wearing flip flops.

How professional, you thought, rolling up your sleeves. “I wish to have one normal day. Is that not possible? Too much to ask for?” You silently grumbled to yourself.

Out of the sidewalk cracks, popped Flowey. “Howdy YN.”

“The fuck you want from me Flower? I’m busy, in case you can’t tell.” You grumbled continuing to walk towards the lab building.

“Someone is in a grouchy mood.”

“In case you don’t have your creepy flower forethought, The lab got blew up and now I’m in deep shit if I don’t fix it. So yes, I’m in a grouchy mood. I don’t need any more of your shenanigans.” You huffed, waiting for the pedestrian crossing light to turn green.

“I was going to warn you, but golly you don’t seem to want that.”

“No, I do not. But warn me anyways.” You hissed walking across the street, as the light turned green.

“No… Now is not the right time.” Flowey said, sprouting in a crack on the other side of the crosswalk.

You had rage physically seething out of you at this point, and you weren’t exactly happy with the Flowers antics. You chose to ignore it, as you continued to the lab and heaved open the door. Everything was in flames. You groaned and grabbed the fire extinguisher from the wall near the door and started in clearing the flames enough to make a path to the stairs.

You got to the top floor and found Karl frantically putting out fire with a small towel. You sprayed the fire he was trying to set out, alerting him to your presence.

“You’re an idiot sometimes,” You stated. He hung his head low for a second before springing back to life.

“Now get out of here, I’ll deal with this.” You murmured.

You stood outside, maybe an hour or so later, and the building was in the process of being put out. You, Karl and Kathy, sat in the ambulance, with a blanket around each of you, considering the dropping temperatures. At this point, you were not amused. Not angry, but definitely not happy in any way shape or form.

Amber rushed to the scene and skidded in front of the Ambulance back, where you three were seated. In silence.

“Okay what the fuck happened here.” Amber started, with her barrage of questions.

Karl shrugged. “Dunno.”

“Which one of you idiots did it? Kathy, I know you didn’t.” Amber continued. You pointed your head to Karl. Amber eyed Karl with a glare that could kill if looks could kill. Thankfully they couldn’t, otherwise, we’d all be dead.

“You got a ride?” You asked Amber, as Karl and Kathy were being questioned. Amber turned around and nodded.

“Yeah?” She replied, a bit of a question in her voice.

“Mind if I stay over for a bit?”

“Sure?” She questioned, walking to her car and unlocking it. She hopped into the driver's seat and you stuck yourself in the passenger seat.

The drive to her apartment was relatively silent until you were a few blocks away. “Hope you don’t mind, Frisk, Toriel, and Asgore are over. Tea and chat, if you may.” She explained.

“I don’t mind, but why are Toriel and Asgore in the same room? I thought they couldn’t stand each other?” You asked. Amber laughed and pulled into the driveway.

“They can’t. They’ve made so much effort as to sit on either side of the table.” She laughed and you laughed with her.

Amber's apartment was much nicer than yours. There was a parking lot, and the renters had a good much more room per apartment than you did. You walked into her building quietly behind her. Leaving the blanket in the car, and already starting to take off your jacket.

True to her word, Asgore and Toriel were on other sides of the table, both drinking tea. Frisk was watching TV on the couch. You chuckled and followed her to the kitchen.

“Ah, Y/N,” Toriel speaks up. “I did not expect to see you here.”

You chuckled lightly to yourself. “I didn’t either. Accident at the lab, so I’m staying here for the time being.

Asgore nods. “I always get so confused when you mention your workplace, versus when Amber does,” he speaks up. You chuckle and nod.

“I don’t work with her. Perhaps that's for the best.” You lean against the kitchen countertop.

“Perhaps. And perhaps not.” Asgore stands up. “Come, child, do you mind if we talk for a bit? I need to refill my tea, as it is.” He says to you, walking out of the kitchen. You nod and follow him. 

“Is this anything bad?” Your question, nervously. You haven’t had many conversations with the Monster King.

Asgore laughs a bit. “Only if you make it. You do know of Dr. Gaster, correct?” He leads in. You had a feeling this wasn’t going to end very well.

“Of course, it’s the starter for all of Jules and Amber’s rants. Sometimes they’ll show up at my house and the first thing I’ll hear as they walk in through the door is, ‘You will not BELIEVE what Gaster did this time!’” You chuckled lightly at the memories. Asgore laughs along with you, relieving the tension in the air. And for a second it didn’t really feel like you were talking with the Monster King. And just an old friend.

“If I were to tell you that you might have a chance to work under him, what would you say?” He implied. You choked on your tea.

“I wouldn’t believe you, he would most likely redirect me to Alphys first. I do not think he ever-”

“Wants to hear the last name Starr ever again? Then you would be correct.” He nodded.

There was silence. “I’d work under Alphys?”

“For the time being, yes.”

“What does that mean? That I’d be working under Alphys until I’m either dismissed or..” You start. Both of you knew where you were heading. Asgore nods. You shake your head. “I need a moment to process this. What would happen to my old lab?”

“Most likely you would promote someone else as the head scientist. Amber could show you around the new lab if you so, please. You will be working with her, after all.”

You stayed silent, sipping your tea and contemplating this. Asgore refilled his tea at the kitchen countertop and came back.

“You are sure it wouldn’t be too much of a hassle?” You questioned, leaning against the stairs.

Asgore shook his head. “The more help, the better I suppose. Amber speaks very highly of you. She recommended the idea to me first. From what I hear, Jules is not appointed, but she might as well be. She comes in every so often. You know Alphys, of course. She speaks highly about you as well.”

“I do not mean to be rude, uh-” You stumbled on what to call the king.

“Asgore is fine.” He clarified. “Go on,”

“No offense, so what if people talk highly about me? You have never seen what my skill set is? Why trust me?”

Asgore glanced at the small TV behind him. “Because I have seen what you have created in action. You may not realize this, Y/N, but you have saved countless people. And all I have heard is how well you work, and what you are capable of. It is worth a shot to see this in action if you were in my position.”

You stayed silent. You forget about your own set of achievements sometimes. Maybe you finally were becoming Y/N and not Starr.

You took a breath. “Only one way to see if I will be of any use to you,” You stared back at the TV in the living room. “I accept.”

Asgore nodded. “You will do great, I believe.”

You nod very nervously. “Thank you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AS TO NOT BORE EVERYONE I MADE THIS CHAPTER REGULAR LENGTH, BUT IN TURN I ONLY GOT THROUGH HALF THE PLOT POINTs In ThiS ChAPTER OOP- okay well then add another chapter to my 50+ chapter plot points document :''''''')
> 
> Anyways, Hope y'all enjoyed. Constructive criticism is welcome, and feel free to point out any mistakes/spelling typos/grammar mistakes I made, I appreciate the help, I'm a singular man I can only do so much :'''')
> 
> (in case y'all couldn't tell, I'm bad at writing speeches :''') that's the last speech for a while, hopefully lmaO. Things get interesting in a chapter or two, doN'T WORRY!)
> 
> Anyways as always thanks for reading and see you in the next Update!
> 
> Alright y'all, as usual, thank you for reading, and have a great day!
> 
> (☼♏︎♎︎♋︎♍︎⧫︎♏︎👎 = Redacted.)


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5.

(Swearing warning)

“You know more about this than Jules or anyone else I know.” You nervously paced around the kitchen, pressing your phone roughly to your ear.

“It’s Sunday, go back to bed, Y/N,” Amber groaned on the other side of the phone. She was quite literally the opposite of a morning person. I guess that was everyone at some point.

“I start work tomorrow if I might have some advice as to not crash and burn and ruin my whole career, that would be great.” An exaggeration, but mimicking your thoughts. Your nails were bitten down to the base, you had three Dora bandaids on from eating the skin on the side of your nails once you had run out of nail, and you were panicking at 10 in the morning, 22 hours before you started work tomorrow. Yeah, you were, to say the least, a mess in all of your glory.

“What do you want me to tell you? Work hard and you’ll be rewarded? Y/N, this isn’t preschool. You have to work your ass off and more, and that’s about all there is to it. Sometimes I don’t even get home because I didn’t reach my goal for the end of the day. This isn’t playtime anymore, this is the real stuff. We’re the royal scientists, not people on our own, funded by the government. The kind and queen ask us to make a cure to some plague, we make it. They ask to create an antidote for this and that, we create it. You get what I’m saying? This is more the real deal than before, N/N.”

You stayed silent for a brief second, catching your breath as you thought about what Amber had said.

“Well, shit. Uh, thanks. See you tomorrow I guess,” There was a hint of worry caught in the back of your throat, but you paid no mind to it as you struggled to keep your voice steady.

Amber sighed on the other side of the phone. “Yeah. Cya.” And with a click and a long dial tone, she had hung up.

You scratched the back of your neck nervously, as you set your phone down on the kitchen countertop, not wanting to text anyone or do anything. You needed mental prep for this. You were going into a new job, why does this feel like you’re making some kind of radical presentation to the king and queen on why we should exterminate the sun in the sky.

Not even a second later, you picked up your phone again. Someone had to be free. Ignatia, possibly? There was a chance.

Clicking open your phone, you were met with the familiar contact message from Alphys.

Alphys: Hey! You on for Mew Mew tonight?

You smiled gently to yourself. Alphys had a way of having perfect timing without knowing it sometimes. Other times, her timing was, well, a bit all over the place to say the least.

You hurriedly typed a quick reply, your fingers sliding across the digital keys smoothly. You could practically type without looking down. Of course, that would be one of the few times autocorrect would help you out, but you believed it was a nice accomplishment.

Me: Yup! I’ll be over in 10 if that’s cool

Alphys didn’t wait more than half a second before replying.

Alphys: Yup, see ya then!

You nodded to yourself and closed the phone again, shoving it hurriedly into your pocket.

Desperate for a distraction from the gaping hole feeling in the pit of your stomach, you grabbed your keys from the counter quickly and made your way to the door with long strides. Grasping your coat from the coat rack, you strode out into the hallway.

Click, click. Ding.

The elevator doors opened as you, unintentionally, hurried to your car and slipped into the driver's seat.

You stuck the key in the engine and rapped your fingers against the steering wheel, waiting for the navigation to load. When it finally did, you shifted the gears into drive and made your way out of the parking lot and out onto the main road, going nearly as fast as the speed limit. That was until you hit traffic.

You groaned and honked your car, swiveling into a different street and finally getting back on the road to Alphys’ apartment.

You gently pressed the brake as you parked in front of her building. Grasping the key out of the engine, you clicked the car door locked and made your way to the front entrance.

Within minutes you stood outside Alphys’ door. Gently, you knocked on the door. Inside, you could distantly hear the sound of papers shuffling and quick-paced footsteps. Alphys opened the door and smiled at you, holding up a disc collection in her paws.

After the first season, you had gotten up to grab some popcorn. The two of you had watched the first season with the occasional commentary on the plot holes or the epic animation in some scenes. It truly felt like you were a teenager again. You sighed and shoved the bowl of popcorn into the too old to function properly microwave and crossed your fingers that it wouldn’t set the kitchen aflame.

While the microwave hummed, your thoughts drifted back to the imminent and gadfly approaching the first day. It was only two weeks ago when Asgore had proposed to you the idea and two weeks since you had accepted. You sighed slightly and dragged a hand slowly down your face.

Karl was more than pleased to take over from you, though you doubted there would be much of a workspace left for him to do anything if he kept up his destructive streak.

You stifled a small chuckle, and slid your gaze back to the microwave, watching the time flash “0:00” ending the timer before you snapped back into reality. Opening the microwave door and grasping the popcorn, you walked quickly back to Alphys, melting into your side of the couch, Alphys zoning out at the blank screened TV.

“Something up?”

Alphys shook her head dazedly, slowly blinking back to reality. It seemed everyone was in a rather tired mood today. Well, that was normal. It was Sunday, after all.

The movie ended somewhere near mid-afternoon when you had said your partial goodbyes to Alphys, knowing full well you’d see her tomorrow, and were off.

While thinking, you rounded a corner and immediately smacked into each other, affecting both of you stumbling backward and struggling to regain balance for a good few seconds, before you tilted your head up to meet the stranger's eyes.

By definition, this was in fact, no stranger. Jules, actually. Perfect.

“Jules.” You breathed out an airy chuckle. “I see you’ve been off doing errands,” You held up your phone briefly. “I called 4 times.”

“Why did you call me 4 times.” She asked coldly, the icicles of her words unintentionally driving into your self-confidence.

“Sorry,” You whispered quietly, before dropping your phone back down to your side. “Just wanted to talk to you. Sisterly bonding or...something.” The lie fell easily through your teeth, not wanting to worry your sister with how worried you are about this job, which really shouldn’t worry you that much, which in turn would worry anyone with how much you were worrying, but that’s a paradox for another time

Jules quirked an eyebrow high onto her forehead, her warm brown eyes gently scanning your face for any hints of a lie. Of course, she detected it almost immediately. No lies ever got past Jules Starr. Ever.

She scowled and pinched the bridge of her nose delicately, shiting her scarf up to her neck as a gentle breeze drifted by in the cold fall air. “Walk with me,” she asked simply, though it was more of a command than anything else.

Without much resistance, you quickly fell into place with her, instead of walking the way you were originally going and Jules was heading back from. “You’re nervous.” She concluded eventually, after a brief moment of awkward silence.

Your eyes rolled so far back into your head, you were almost sure for a split second they were going to stay that way. “Really, Sherlock? I’m most shocked by your conclusions. However, did you reach them?”

Jules scoffed and turned back to face the path in front of her. “Word of advice. Or a few words, actually.”

“I’m listening,” you continued.

“Don’t be.” Her footsteps stopped near a roundabout, her heels clicking against the sidewalk coming to an abrupt halt.

You carefully raised an eyebrow, “Why’s that?” It’s not as if you’ve heard that several times today.

She studied your face for a moment before sighing. “God, you’d think you were visiting the president tomorrow. Relax, would you? Your shoulders are uncomfortably stiff, your face just screams nervousness. You fiddle with your earrings when you’re nervous. Have you noticed that?” Jules, perceptive as ever, in her harsh sister comforting way.

You instantly put your hand down, realizing the thing about the earring part. Which, in fact, you hadn’t realized before.

“I’m likely not the first person to tell you this, but it’s just a job. You’re not meeting the monster king or something of the sort.” A hand of hers gently resting on your shoulder. Well, a gloved one. “Calm down.”

You let out a heavy breath, which fogged up in the air in front of you, before disappearing in the wind. “Alright, alright.”

She smiled, barely, which she does rarely, but it is possible to see workaholic Jules Starr smile sometimes.

Turning the corner without your sister, you walked carefully into the quiet building that is -- well, was -- your office. Your lab, whatever. It was like a second home to yo for 7 years.

As if lifting a heavy weight off your chest and onto your feet, you continued forward into the lab, running your hand along the polished white walls, smooth and cold to the touch.

With a gentle breath, you continued up the stairs of the lab, hearing your sneakers squeaky sounds echo throughout the temporarily deserted hallway. There’d still be plenty of people here tomorrow, even when you were off worrying your damn head off at your new job. Working for the king and queen monster, alongside some of the people that redefine genius.

With a smile that wasn’t quite a smile, more of a facial feature to radiate a sense of ease and comfort to yourself, even though you couldn’t see it.

Walking out the dusty elevator, you made your way up the steps into the familiar hallway, with a familiar door at the end that leads into your Lab. Office. Whatever.

Pushing open the creaky door, the nearly defunct lights flickered for a second, before humming to life, as you flicked on the switch.

In the middle of the room, alongside the table where you did most of your life work up to this point, stood Karl, carefully cleaning everything up. The fire department may have cleaned everything up weeks ago, but he was still scraping off some spare charred pieces of material here and there.

His hand ran idly across the table before slowly looking up to meet your gaze.

“Not sure I wanna be head scientist,” He chuckled, his grin not quite meeting his eyes.

“Well, you’re the most capable out of all of us. Besides, you’ve got Kathy to keep you company.” You tried.

He shrugged his floating shoulders (??? His monster species still confused you to this day) “I guess you’re right.” There was a pause before he remembered something and snapped his fingers. “Right, I remember why I was here.” He pointed to the stash of stuff in a cleaned corner, free from dust and other tell-tale signs of the previous incident. “I packed up your stuff fo you, I knew you’d come back to go get it so I… uh…” he paused again.

You nodded. “Thanks, dude.”

“Yup.”

Another pause.

“Soo,” he trailed off, “You’re going to be working for the King and Queen now, huh?”

You nodded, slowly, pacing off into the corner and reaching around your stuff, trying to place everything to a name. Your notes on several failed experiments, your satchel of ingredients, your stacks on stacks of ingredient notes. And, your messenger bag you rarely took home. Inside, was the few pieces of paper, stapled together, on how to create the very thing you’re leaving this place for.

The paper was crinkled a bit, but it was no doubtedly your first draft notes, with your messy handwriting and the scrawls in the margins. Several papers underneath the successful attempt were the failed attempts, the documentation of everything.

Gently running your finger over the burned corners of the paper, obviously scorched from those failed tries, you let out a heavy breath.

“Thanks,” you let out, idly.

Karl rocked on his heels, as you turned around with a fond smile on your face. “You’ll do great, I know it.”

A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips and he shrugged again, sliding his hands gently into his lab coat’s pockets.

“Yeah. I guess you’re right.”

Locking the door behind you after Karl had left the building had felt like you were locking away a whole past of things.

Which was to say, a heavy burden lifted and placed on your chest.

You had hung around after Karl left and gently took in the (desperately in need of a repair) area, before turning your back to the place, likely not coming back for a while.

That place was your home for well over several years.

But, people move on.

With a heavy sigh, you latched onto the key and tugged it out the door, knowing Karl had the spare ones you gave him years ago.

The key rattled gently on your keychain, and you knew you’d probably not need it again for a very long time.

If at all.

Back facing your second home (basically), you strode forwards from the building towards your apartment building.

Though it was only mid-afternoon, you felt a heavy wave of exhaustion hit you suddenly, as you paused in your steps and stretched one hand above your head, and the other covering your mouth as you yawned.

“Ugh.” You muttered out, disgustedly as you tapped your foot at a crosswalk, waiting for the pedestrian light to turn green.

Finally dropping your stuff onto the couch, you groaned as you collapsed next to your piles of stuff, resorting to leaving the cleaning of your overall apartment (including the new luggage you just dropped off) for another day as you stretched once more, feeling your eyes drift closed for a brief nap.

When you awoke again, it was near midnight, as you, surprisingly, felt fully rested.

“This is my Karma,” you groaned to yourself, “I sleep during the day and work at night. This is the result of my own actions, my own consequences.” You stretched your legs and stood up energetically, feeling a bunch of bones crack into place. Loudly, too.

“I’m officially an owl,” You declared to nobody in particular.

Rolling your shoulders gently, you glanced out the window, seeing through the hallways and the window placed in the hallway outside your door, the gentle trees swaying in the distance of the park that stood in the middle of the small neighborhood you presided in.

With a grunt, you strode over to your door and grabbed your jacket from the coat rack, dropping your lab coat onto the rack, and not bothering to change out of your worn-down sneakers for this plain midnight walk.

You opened the door steadily, slipping through it and trudging down the hallway.

Emerging into the frigid outside, you gently wrapped your scarf around you tighter, hands in pockets, and walking across a road nonchalantly, not bothering to look for cars (don't do this at home kids).

Shuddering, you gently emerged into the heavily forested park.

With a quick glance around, your eyes landed gently onto a park bench facing the fountain, which, still active as ever, continued to run.

You plopped down onto the bench, crossing your legs and instantly feeling the coldness of the bench on your back and legs.

There was silence, as you watched the fountain for a moment before indistinct whispers filled the air.

“C’mon man, hurry it up!”

“I’m trying!”

Shaking your head to make sure nobody was doing it inside the forest, you focused your hearing onto the hushed murmur.

“The box is right there, fuckass!”

“Well, why don't you try and lift it then, huh?”

Both voices, laced with frustration, obviously picked up a bo, before plopping it back down mere seconds later with a resounding plop.

“Why does the boss even need this shit, anyway?”

“Don’t ask me!”

Standing up from the bench quietly, you maneuvered yourself as quietly as possible to a nearby tree, following the source of the sound, and peering around the trunk.

Sure as hell, there were two men, dressed in black and sneaking through the forest in the middle of the night, carrying a large box near a truck.

Furrowing your eyebrows, you slid your glasses onto your face and peered through them closely at the men.

But, it wasn't long before they got onto the truck and rode off with the box carrying whatever.

With a grunt, and no clear facial recognitions or truck details to go off of, you resigned yourself to the fact that this happens often, and you're no policeman. Policewoman. Whatever it was you weren’t, you weren’t. You wouldn’t be able to catch these guys and the police would certainly not arrive in time to catch them without a license plate.

Grunting, you made your way back through the forest towards your apartment building, deciding you’ve had enough for the day and resigning yourself to getting enough sleep for tomorrow.

After all, it was a big day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> //Sorry for the shorter than usual chapter! This chapter was more of a chapter interconnecting two bigger chapters. The next chapter is when things start to get
> 
> smacks lips
> 
> spicy
> 
> anyways, as always, thanks for reading, and I'll see y'all in the next update. whenever my brain decides to help me write. thanks!


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6.

Your feet ached. These shoes were definitely too small for you, you thought sourly as you idly rocked on your heels outside the imposing building, unsure of what to actually do. Would Asgore meet you and show you around? Would Alphys tour you? Would you just be shown in and Alphys lays out the things she's working on and run you through what the hell is going on?

You were hopelessly lost on how things would work, since it's been years since this last happened, and that situation was much more different than this one.

You waited for another minute or two until Alphys showed up, her footsteps pattering gently against the sidewalk as she sort of half-ran towards you. Or; moreover the door.

“Good morning Alph.” You started.

She looked up at you, an almost startled look in her eyes before she relaxed. “O-oh Y/N! Tota-totally forgot you were- you were starting out h-here,” She fumbled with her keys, unlocking the door before motioning her hand to follow you.

“Th-this way,” She gestured, walking rapidly (but not too fast that she was running. She was barely half your height, so it was quite easy to keep stride with her. She rounded many hallways, and around 2 minutes into your walk you decided you would just let your memory naturally adjust to the new setting rather than forcing your brain to figure out where to go every time.

Eventually, Alphys walked into a room, no door, just empty doorway leading to a huge room filled with practically the stuff in your dreams.

Granted, your dreams are a lot more work-related than average but still.

The room was not exactly white in appearance, it still had the sort of been here for a while look but was still fairly clean. In the middle of the room was a large working table with all sorts of blueprints and notes and microscopes lied out onto the table. Around the edges of the room were desks and libraries filled to the brim with books and research you would never have been able to get your hands on before this.

Your nervousness completely drowned out by the sheer possibilities and all the things you could read and learn overtook. You felt euphoric and knew you would fit in just right here.

The lab was empty, and though it looked large enough to hold a crowd, it was likely only a few worked in here. Including Amber and Alphys.

Still stunned by the obviously not low-cost lab, Alphy turned to look at you to gauge your reaction. She chuckled.

“Your sister had the- the same reaction,” her gaze flitted to the bookshelf filled with books of research and studies and the sort. “Though, she had more of- more of a preference towards the blueprints in the middle.”

You blinked for a second and discreetly pinched yourself, enough to make sure you wouldn’t wake up and be disappointed.

Nope. Fully, 100% real.

Your eyes lingered on the bookshelves, before flitting across the rest of the room, lingering a little on the table in the middle as well.

Alphys strode in, and you shook your head to snap out of your dream-like trance.

If this is what true love felt like, maybe you wouldn’t totally be opposed to the notion.

But for now, you had a couple ideas in mind of what you wanted to do. Mostly regarding learning every scrap of information you couldn't afford or wasn't available to you before.

Alphys pulled up a stool to the table and stood atop it, glancing at the blueprints before turning back to you. “W-Well?”

“It’s… Incredible.” You breathed.

“I-I didn’t think it was all too much to get- get excited about but you sure seem to… to like it.”

“Like it? This room contains probably information that I would never have been able to get my hands on, whether I had the money or not. The opportunities, Alphys!” You practically squealed.

Alphys scoffed and rolled her eyes. “W-Well you have all the time in the- in the world. Take what you like and- and read it. B-but I need to how you around first.”

You nodded eagerly and slowed your breathing, effectively calming you down.

Alphys hopped off the chair gracefully and strode towards the doorway, motioning for you to follow her again as she continued down the hallway.

“A-Alright I’m not great at these things b-but you’ll g-get the general gist ev-eventually.” She rounded a corner and carefully walked down some stairs. “A-A couple gr-ground rules first. 1. W-We don't go into rooms like…” She paused and pointed to a door labeled “207.” “Th-that one. And also-” 803, “Th-that one and don’t go to the third fl-floor. Dr. Gaster’s stuff is- is up there and while it's not necessarily- necessari-ly restricted its more of not disturb-disturbing him.”

You nodded, filled with a bit of curiosity to see what lies behind the doors 207, 803, and the general 3rd floor, but you still decided you’d do well to heed Alphys’ warning.

For now, at least.

“Alright.”

The tour continued as normal, Alphys pointing out certain rooms not to go in, and when prodded, said rooms are usually involved with the door or are simply just marked as “dangerous.” Even Alphys herself didn’t know why some were marked to not go in, and wouldn’t talk about others.

Huh.

All the curiosity dissipated though once you reached back to the original room you started out in, quickly replaced by a grin on your face as you predictably walked over to the part of the room covered in research.

Your hands skimmed across the books, and you had a difficult time choosing which book would be best to start out with. Alphys tapped your arm and handed you a book. “If- if you’re looking to start out somewhere, I recommend here.” You smiled and took the book, skimming the first page.

“Thanks, Alph.”

“Y-yup.”

Within seconds of that conversation, distant bickering was heard down the hall. Two voices you could make out distinctly, one was a bit foggy in the memory.

The bickering got closer until finally, standing in the doorway were your two sisters and the Doctor himself, bickering on god knows what as they completely disregarded Alphys and you in the room. Amber stormed into the room, not genuinely angry, just trying to prove a point and slammed her bag down onto one of the counters. Alphys and you stood frozen by the bookshelves. Well, you stood frozen, Alphys more of sighed and murmured. “Every day.”

Jules at a point rolled her eyes and walked out of the room, and after that the argument between Amber and the Doctor subsided as they noticed You and Alphys in the room, standing by the bookshelves. Alphys, with a rather unamused look, and you with a face that can only be described as ‘New-comer confusion.”

“Oh. Y/N, didn’ see ya there.” Amber spoke up.

You chuckled at her with a slight grin, “Took you quite a while to notice us. Do you do this with everyone or is it just Karl and him?”

Amber scoffed, grinning and crossing her arms. “Just these two.”

Your grin subsided as you turned to face Gaster. “Doctor,” you nodded ever so slightly.

“Ms. Starr.” He nodded back, turning and walking out the door.

You paused for a beat before turning back to your sister. “Is he always this grumpy or is he just happy to see another member of the Starr family?”

Amber snorted. “Both.” She whirled around in her chair, seemingly unpacking pages upon pages of notes that she either wrote last night with little to no sleep or have been progressively working on over the weekend. “Ever the bookworm, eh?” She commented, glancing back at you.

You scoffed and rolled your eyes. “Is that a bad thing?”

“No, don’ get me wrong. It’s a great trait to have, I sort of wish I could enjoy those books a’ well. But I’m too busy. They’re all yours, though.”

You nodded. “Never thought I’d see myself end up here.”

“Me neither.” She grinned. “Hoped you would do something yourself, not get stuck with a grouchy ol’ man as the head scientist here.”

You laughed a bit, “How old is he anyway?”

“I dunno, like 27? 28?”

“I’m 26.” You commented, “Does that mean I’m an old lady?”

Amber burst out laughing at that. “If you are then I’m practically ancient.”

“W-Well then I really am a dinosaur in age, th-then,” Alphys commented. Everyone paused for a bit before laughing quietly.

“How'd like the place?” Amber commented, going back to sorting through her papers and pulling a microscope closer to her.

“It’s a lot better than the old lab, I’ll tell you that.”

You couldn’t see it, but you could certainly hear the grin in her voice. “A bit much at first, but you’ll get used to it. A lotta people here are like you. You’ll fit right in.”

You paused for a moment and nodded.

“You’re right. I think I will.”

And that’s exactly what happened. Within a meager 2 weeks, you managed to find a flow into the workplace, and it was nearly second nature to find the right room. Though sometimes you did get lost. The point is; you found the flow. And rather quickly, too.

In the two weeks, you managed to plow through quite a few books on the shelf. Some were better than others, but all in all, would have been very useful a while back. Before you made the cure. No, you had not come up with a name for it yet, and you needed one. Desperately.

(no seriously a/n real quick if any of yall have names please comment them I suck at coming up with names it’s genuinely very sad. Anyways back to the story,)

But, as quickly as you started to get settled into the workflow, Holidays rolled around. More specifically; Christmas. Your family wasn’t exactly the most religious, so if the family friends were celebrating Christmas, you’d come along. If not, then it was just another week off. Today was likely the last day at work before the temporary (and mandatory) Winter Break that not even Jules could skip. 

You whirled around in your spinny chair, watching Alphys pack up as you idly skimmed through a page of your own free reading book, not one from the library here. You hummed to yourself quietly and stopped spinning once you made your way over to the desk you did some idle and meaningless experiments at, trying to discover some breakthrough that would jumpstart a new project, since Alphys wouldn’t let you help with the one she was currently working on.

And yet, nothing. It felt more as if you were a spare in the lab, showing up only if something went wrong and by some unlucky incident, everyone before you (which had to be at least 5 or 6 people) was injured. Like you were the backup of several backups stacked on top of…

Well, you got the point.

“I-I’ll see you on S-Sunday, Y/N,” Alphys commented, halfway through the doorway.

“Hm? Oh yeah, the party. Right, yeah, see you then.” you nodded at her as she left. You sighed, there wasn’t much left for you to do here, and you hardly wanted to stay much longer.

You placed the book down and shuffled through your papers, pushing them all aside and glancing through them for less than a second.

All were filled to the brim with notes marked with their respective dates.

Except for one.

Your eye caught on a blank sheet of paper with a date hurriedly scribbled in, a contrast to your more refined handwriting (well, you used to have terrible handwriting, but with all the writing you did, you decided you might as well make it legible.) sparing you to pick it up with a hum.

And that's when you stopped humming carefree because this paper was marked a year in the future. (jazz music stops.)

You squinted a bit and ran your hand over the ink, it was still fresh onto the paper.

You certainly don't remember writing much of anything in the last hour. In fact, you didn’t even have any spare paper.

Biting your lip suspiciously, you pushed your chair aside and glanced around the paper. There were no telltale signs of invisible ink or magic, merely a blank page with some fresh ink detailing a date far in the future.

You walked gently out of the room, leaving your stuff behind as you pushed into a room next door. Luckily, only one person was present and it was the exact monster you needed. He was a tall monster with several hands poking out of his sides. Specifically, he had an ability called tracking. Simply defined as being able to tell when something happened, should he come in contact with said thing.

So, say, for instance, you needed to know when certain things were written…

You gently rapped on the doorway, getting his attention. His skin was pure white, shimmering, nearly even glowing actually. Though he wore an ugly Christmas sweater and a pair of shorts. (Goddammit sans, you’re infecting people you don't even know.) He had two horns connecting on his forehead and snake-like eyes. He was taller than you, even while sitting. He’d likely be taller than Papyrus, standing back to back to him.

“Hey, Per, don’t mean to interrupt but uh, could you run something by your tracker ability?”

He nodded silently and wheeled his chair over, sticking out his hand for the object he’d need an analysis on. “It’s this date in the corner. And could you try and find if anything else was written on this paper?”

He held the paper in his hand lightly for a second, before nodding. “I can attempt. What is this for, if you do not mind me asking?”

You shrugged. “Bit unsure.”

He nodded slowly. “Alright.” He glanced at the paper and gently ran his hand over the now dried ink, his eyes going red for a few seconds, before sliding back into white backgrounds and black iris’.

“This was written a year from two weeks ago.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Unfortunately not, Ms. Starr,” He stood up and handed you the paper again. “There is nothing else written on this paper, but it seemed you were in a rush to write the date. I sense a bit of magic underlying, but it is so faint and chaotic it’s hardly traceable. I’m afraid you’re on your own with this one, Ms. Starr.”

“Wait, I wrote it?”

He nodded, before wheeling his chair back to his desk and slipping back on a glove, observing papers that looked fairly ancient.

You gripped the paper in your hands, before sighing and walking back net door to gather your things. Stuffing all your papers into your messenger bag, along with the strange sheet of paper, you stuffed the thought of it away to be dealt with later.

For now, you could only return home.

Walking back home seemed to become a task today, mostly because you encountered a tiny yellow flower.

Or rather, he encountered you.

You let out a heavy groan. “Yes Flowey, what is it?”

“Golly, aggressive today, are we?”

“I don't have time for fun and games, in case you can’t tell. Go bother some other human. There are more than 7 billion of them.” You replied back, snarkily.

“Hm yes, and it seems you are one of the few with a certain condition.”

This made you stop in your tracks, dead set. “What did you just say?”

The flower giggled, almost frighteningly. “You heard what I said, Y/N.”

You got down onto your knees to face the flower, glaring at the flower. “How the fuck do you know about my soul condition?”

The flower giggled and dug underneath the pavement to move into the pavement crack a few feet ahead of you. As if leading you somewhere.

“Certain monsters can sense certain things.” He continued, as you brought your quick walk down to a slower one.

“So what, you’re following me because my soul is weak as hell so that if you ever get annoyed at me you can kill me quicker?”

The flower shook its head. “No, Y/N.”

“Then there’s nothing to talk about unless you want to decode my entire history based on my condition.”

The flower giggled again, this time inciting a flame of fear inside you. “How am I supposed to decode a history you can’t even remember.”

You opened your mouth to respond, but you couldn’t find the proper words to describe the confusion galloping through your mind.

On that note, Flowey disappeared into the cracks and didn’t resurface.

You stood there, gripping the strap of your messenger bag, hands shaking and fear bubbling inside you.

All because of a talking flower.

You scoffed and continued walking home, acutely aware of your surroundings.

Unlocking and closing your apartment door behind you felt almost like a relief, like a burden being lifted off your chest, as you collapsed onto the couch, desperately in need of rest.

\--  
2/24/16

Dr. Matfe gave me this journal to record anything I remember about the past 16 years. He told me they could come in dreams, in seeing something familiar, in talking to someone I used to know.  
But nothing.

I know I should be writing in this journal regularly, but I couldn't bring myself to pick it up until now.

It still feels almost surreal that I had 16 years of life before this.

The doctors are as confused as I am, as you are, stranger reading this. According to Mr. Starr -- Dad -- it seems almost like my body just reset. I collapsed onto the floor, and woke up in a hospital, 6 weeks later, missing my entire memory.

They think it has something to do with my weakened body organs. Before this supposed ‘reset’ apparently, I could barely walk 10 meters without getting out of breath, I had to visit the hospital regularly, and I was so fragile I had broken almost half of my bones by the age of 10.

They all thought I was going to die.

I lived, bitches!

that wasn’t funny.

I’m trying to adjust to knowing this, and I’m trying to remember anything before waking up in the hospital, but nothing has come to me in weeks.

It feels like a lost cause.

But my memories have to be somewhere. I just need to find where.

Y/N Starr OK to return to schooling.

4/13/16

School is fine, I guess. I didn’t take many Advanced classes, so it wasn’t too hard to transition back into life from there. But AP Calculus AB is killing me, I have to catch up soon or I’ll fail my Sophomore year. Plus, in my Junior year, I have to apply for college.

Yeah, apply to college with one year of memory. Might as well go to community college. But Father insists I go to a good school, condition or not.

At least he has faith in me, even if it’s misplaced.

4/27/16

nevermind.

Patient Name: Y/N Starr  
Age: 16  
DOB: {Birth Month/Day}/2000  
Check-in time: 2:04 PM 1/4/17  
Status: Healthy overall, minus the weakened organs.  
Doctors note: Seems to be healing well, she’s moving back into society slowly, but she’ll get there eventually. Her memory should start to return soon.

5/6/17

I still don’t remember anything.  
I still don't remember  
I still don't remember  
I still don  
t  
R  
e  
m  
e  
mM--,,  
\---  
01110100 01110010 01111001 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110010 01100100

There’s a meadow, it’s yellow.  
There’s a tree, all alone, but it’s mellow.  
A swing on a branch  
A girl on a swing.  
Maybe it’s spring…  
The birds hum carefully,  
The grass drifts easily,  
The world spins evenly.  
And they’ll be there, forever,  
And they'll be there, forever,  
And they'll be there, forever,  
Foree-ee-e-ee,,,---  
01100110 01101111 01110010 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010

You shot up in a cold sweat, your hands desperately clenching and unclenching at the blanket placed atop you.

Steadying our breathing, you sat up more carefully now, observing your surroundings. What the fuck was that dream about? Cryptic as hell and certainly hurt your brain to try and remember.

Even thinking about it caused you a light jab of pain. Amber, now in your house handed you some steaming soup and your journal, a pen taped to the front.

“Eat. It’ll make you feel better.”

You nodded silently, not in the mood to protest, and not too curious about how she got here.

That’s a lie, you were curious, but first, you needed to write down what you could before you forgot anything.

Placing the soup aside a little harshly, you ripped the pen out from under the tape and flipped to the new page, gently scribbling down the badly written poem into your journal.

Staring at it felt a little hollow.

Okay, terribly hollow. This poem meant nothing and it felt more like a half-hearted song a 12-year old wrote.

Still, you could faintly remember the tune, so you scribbled that down too.

You sighed and closed the book once more, taping the pen half-heartedly back to the front, and tossing it aside, opting to instead eat the soup.

Well, at least Amber could cook.

“Why are you here?” You asked, gently.

Amber rolled up her sleeve, sitting down on the armchair facing the couch and shrugged. “You prolly won't remember, but when you were recoverin', you had quite a few nightmares. Okay, a lot. Even before your internal reset, you'd have nightmares often. When you had a nightmare, your soul, for lack of a better term, reached out to the closest person that it cared about mos' for help, since the soul can't distinguish reality from nightmare. That's what jus' happened, anyways. So I'm here.”

“Does this happen often?” You asked.

“Not for you anymore, however, I don’ get many nightmares. Same for Jules. Except she had sorta’ trust issues growin’ up so her soul doesn't reach out to anyone.”

“Oh, so it’s not just my soul and it’s… condition?”

She shook her head. “Nah. Happens to everyone who has a soul. Monsters too, though they’re less inclined ta dream and even less to get nightmares.”

You nodded your head pensively. “I see.”

“How’re ya, anyways. Your soul bothering you?”

You shook your head. “I’m due for a checkup after Christmas, but nothing enough to drive me to go to the hospital.”

She nodded. “Right. Well, anyway, it’s pretty early and I should be gettin’ some sleep. Call me if you need anythin’.”

You nodded. “Yeah. See you Sunday.”

“Tomorrow,” She corrected, walking out the door and closing it gently behind her.

You sighed and finished your soup in silence, letting your head go empty putting a mute button onto your thoughts.

You stared into the mirror, audibly dissatisfied with your outfit, but you had absolutely no effort to exert to change it. Plus, if you took the time to actually change into something a little less casual, you’d likely be a little more than just a few minutes late to this party.

Jeans, simple winter boots, a bright red turtleneck, and a fur-lined leather jacket. It was hastily put together, with the addition of your simple earrings and actually washing your hair.

It took you 30 minutes to put together, 20 of them on the “short” shower you were going to take.

Whatever, if you were late you were late. These were your friends, not some people you were trying to impress.

You ran a hand through your hair one more time and ran down the stairs, grabbing your keys and phone from the kitchen counter and locking the door behind you quickly, as you broke off into a sprint.

You reached the skelebro’s house (Man, do they host every party?) within a solid 8 minutes of running. (and stopping every 1 - 2 minutes.)

You didn’t even make it to the door before blue mist opened the door for you, and you awkwardly cluttered inside, turning to face a grinning (he’s always grinning Jesus christ at least papyrus can somewhat move the corners of his mouth) short skeleton.

“welcome back bud.”

“Sans, I don't care how long I will and have known you, I will never get used to your magical blue dust abilities that are lowkey magical girl worthy.”

He chuckled lowly, closing the door behind you, “maybe i should become a magical girl then.”

“I’d pay real money to see that happen.” You replied, grinning and hanging up your coat onto the coat rack.

Sans turned back to his conversation with Papyrus while you scanned the room for familiar faces. It seemed like you were the last or will be one of the last here since everyone already seems comfortable and doing something.

Except for, lo and behold, a tall awkward skeleton, standing in the corner, looking awkward and misplaced in this scenario. He held a red plastic cup in his hand, but certainly wasn’t drinking out of it. If anyone was in the same room as public punch, they wouldn’t want to touch it either.

Your eyes lingered on the figure for a moment before swiping across the room, accounting for everyone. Amber, Karl, Alphys, Undyne, Frisk, Sans and Papyrus. There was a tall pink robot in the corner, Mettaton if you remembered correctly. Some big shot TV star, though you don’t watch TV all that often. Sometimes due to lack of time, most times due to lack of interest.

Amber spots you and drags herself over to you.

“Jules not showing today?”

She shook her head. “Nah. She’s with Nova.”

“Is that her secret Girlfriend?” You grinned.

“So close yet so far. Those two dance around each other like they got all the time in the world.”

“Why haven’t I heard of this Nova character yet?”

“I accidentally went through Jules’ phone one day. Don’ worry, I’m not supposed tah know either.”

“Accidentally?”

Amber raised her hands in surrender. You merely rolled your eyes back to Mettaton. “Didn’t know the skelebros knew a pink frilly robot.”

“That’s Mettaton, big shot TV star or sumthin’.”

“I know who he is,” you remarked, sipping your drink.

“Yeah, he’s got a fan club n’ everythin’. The epitome of a ladies man.”

“And a man’s man.”

She chuckled. “True that true that.”

The conversation came to a lull. “Aight imma go make sure Undyne doesn’ blow up the kitchen,” Amber called out, walking towards the kitchen.

“Have fun.” You called back, leaning against a far wall, glancing back at the rather tame party.

Once again, another lie. Undyne was screaming at the top of her lungs, Mettaton was performing on the old couch, sans was using his magic to just wreck general chaos, and anyone else was in one of those three crowds.

Except for the awkward skeleton in the corner.

You almost expected him at this point to be wearing his lab coat as part of his everyday fashion but no. Just some dress pants and a dark grey turtleneck.

For a moment, you took pity on the man, before sighing and walking over to him.

“Sans finally get you out of your shell? Or did Amber drag you along by force?” This was much too casual for talking to your boss, he was literally the head scientist to the King and Queen of Monsters, he was your boss and held an immensely high position in the royal co-

“Amber.” He sighed and replied meekly.

Well, that was a start.

“Well, I assume you at least expected it by now.”

“Unfortunately. I hoped I would never have to face the wrath of your dear sister but once again, my hopes turn out to prove fruitless.”

You let out a brief laugh at that and stood against the same wall, a few feet apart. “Unstoppable force versus the immovable object.”

“In which I am the immovable object and she is the unstoppable force, I presume?”

You nodded, “Yeah.”

There was a brief pause in the conversation. Shit! You’re bad at talking to other living beings.

“So-”

“Please do not feel as if you have to converse with me, I am having enough fun over here in my corner.”

You raised both your eyebrows. “You’re positive about that? Because you looked awfully miserable. Do you talk with anyone outside of the lab?”

Silence.

“Exactly. I’m not tryna be some eye-opener but you know? Working all the time isn’t exactly the greatest.”

“Oh and I assume you know more than I do about the subject. Should I start calling you your majesty now?”

It was a little harsh, but you could work with this.

“Please, if I was in any position of power, the world would be crumbling within the first day.”

He let out a small laugh at that, a little less harsh. Alright, alright this is fine.

“I can imagine. You could not possibly do any worse than Amber would be able to do, anyway.”

You grinned. “She has a way of getting what she wants.”

“It’s a common trait among your family, I’ve observed.”

“Met my father too now, have you?”

He nodded. “Oh yes, several times. He’s on the Ebott Council and is surprisingly tolerable and much reminds me of Asgore but rather as a human.”

You smiled fondly in front of you at the memory. “Yeah, he is. Amber may not show it, but she’s a lot like him too. Jules is… a different case.”

“Her own person?”

“Yeah. Much like…” You wanted to say, mother, almost on instinct, but you never knew your mother. She died long before your reset.

“Your mother?” He finished.

Your eyebrows furrowed. “Yeah, I guess.”

He nodded. “I heard a few things about her, never met her, however.”

You shook your head. “Me neither. Frankly, I don’t even remember.”

The weight of the conversation felt heavy, but it was nice to talk about it, even indirectly. As if venting to someone who didn’t know the extent of your situation. Some people aren’t exactly who they are at work who they are actually.

“I do not remember my parents, either. It was Sans, Papyrus and I for the longest time.” He sipped his drink cautiously. “Life in the underground wasn’t ideal, but we got by.”

“Yeah.”

The conversation came to a lull again.

“I apologize, this is not exactly the sort of conversation you’d expect to have at a Christmas party.”

“Oh no its okay, don’t apologize. I sort of incited this myself so.” Then a lightbulb clicked inside your head. “Right, the real reason I came over here,” Lie, “was this.”

Out of your bag, you pulled the same blank piece of paper and handed it to him.

“A… blank piece of paper?” He cautiously replied.

“Marked in the future. I ran it by Per and he confirmed it was from the future. He also said something about a fain chaotic bit of magic laced inside but it was far too misplaced for him to trace it. I thought that, well, you’re likely best to figure out how a paper from the future ended up on my desk.”

He stared at it for a moment, running his hand along with the date. “I see. I’ll look into it when I find the time.”

You nodded. “Yeah, that’s all. Uh. I’m sorry for the slightly uh…”

“Depressing?” He continued.

“Yeah, depressing conversation. Thanks, uhm. Yeah.” You stuffed your hands into your pockets and walked back to the kitchen.

…

Holy shit that was an awkward ending but hey you got something done, plus you managed to talk to the poor guy at least.

The party dragged on mostly after that. You did your rounds in the kitchen and occasionally talking to the Skelebros, not talking to Gaster at all after that. Mostly, you hung around Amber or Alphys and Undyne. The food was edible (Thanks to Alphys and Amber interfering with Papyrus and Undyne’s cooking) and the rest of the party went as you expected it to. Boring, but not ridiculously boring. Enough to entertain you but not enough to be remembered a few years down the line.

You helped clean up afterward and said your goodbyes easily enough.

Then, you awkwardly shuffled on home, checking the time and deciding you could probably read for a bit, maybe improve and revisit some old research.

And that was when the real story truly began.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thanks for reading, see you in the next update.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7.

You groaned and shifted slightly, even this little bit of movement causing several papers to fall off your kitchen dining table with a resounding plop onto the floor. Slowly opening your eyes. You saw the stack of papers littering the dining table so much you couldn’t see the actual tabletop. With a grunt you shuffled up and stretched, feeling your bones crack back into place. Not painfully, but rather uncomfortably.

“Ouch,” you murmured quietly, feeling a yawn overtake you. 

Your dear old memory finally finds its way back to you, remembering that you’d been working the whole night.

With a brief glance over to your phone, clicking it open you barely were about to make out the time. “3...3:48 A.M, ugh,” you grunted and quickly shoved your phone back into your pocket.

Quickly pushing your chair back and standing up, you glanced around the table and sighed, dragging a hand down your forehead and gathering up the papers that looked like they belonged in the same categories of research together, and slapping them into spare binders you happen to have lying around.

Looking around maybe 10 minutes later, you sighed and placed your hands on your hips, grunting with displeasure as you moved to go grab the three binders, chock full of paper that you likely haven't looked at in years, or will look at for many more years.

Dragging each binder up one at a time to the bookshelf in the living room, you sighed and dragged a hand down your face. 

Picking up the last binder and shuffling over to the bookshelf in the living room, you were nearly at the shelf before a whole stack of papers (and you’re talking a stack. 20+ papers just cascaded out of the bottom of the binder like it was nobody's business) slipped out the bottom of the binder and onto the hardwood floor.

Letting out an overdramatic groan, you shifted through the papers, grabbing them lazily and slowly, too overcome with tiredness to care about anything anymore.

That was until your eyes landed on one specific paper. It slid off to the other side of the room, an outlier. You furrowed your eyebrows and picked it up, scanning it for a second.

“Oh my god.” You murmured, scanning the contents of the paper.

This paper was definitely your handwriting if a bit messy and contained notes of an old project you scrapped years ago.

Soul essence. 

It’s not new news that souls are made up of different things, and the very soul essence is what makes a soul a soul. Gives it its trait, its abilities, dormant or not. 

But, like the soul can't survive without the essence, being a mere empty host, like the familiar husk of a person, soul essence is useless without a soul.

Without a host.

You scrapped this project years ago, it was far too risky to continue researching since you could only go so far with theorems and hypothetical equations.

You’d need to experiment, but human souls were fragile.

Very weak. Not as weak as monster souls, but they just don't have the right stability to be able to perform a process to remove even a bit of the soul essence from the human. They’d need an insane amount of determination, more determination that a determination soul has, and an insane ability to be able to live without the human body, it’d been to be that stable and powerful.

Finding a soul like that was impossible, it’d need to be artificially made.

Artificially making souls was banned several years ago, just after monsters were released from Mt. Ebott. It was one of the first laws instituted. Apparently, whatever happened in the underground went horribly wrong with artificial soul-making.

Plus, it was unethical to take the very essence of a soul from the human. Taking it from a human would result in either an empty shell of a human, no personality, no nothing. Barely able to. Like the base code of a script. Can work, but not very well. Or, worst-case scenario, just die before the essence was extracted.

So why on this piece of paper were there intricate equations about the soul, what happens if you extract the essence, and better ways to do it, though its risky and requires a steady hand either way.

Why was the paper so detailed, and why does everything it says line up.

Your hand shook as you grasped this paper, reading over the last line at the bottom of the back of the paper again and again, clear there were more papers like this one, continuing off this page.

In the very bottom, there was a date scribbled.

That was exactly a year in the future.

What kind of sick joke was this? 

Your mind ran a million miles an hour, trying and desperately searching for an explanation for this.

Why this paper was labelled with your name, with your handwriting, with a date in the future, with research unfamiliar to you, from a project dropped years ago. Why was it here, and more importantly- where were the other papers?

You gripped the paper tightly, but not tight enough to rip it, very aware of it in your hand.

You glanced around the pile of papers littering the floor and fished out three more papers, identical to the one in your hands, but with different research topics, different dates, and most importantly;

All only one piece is probably a stack of research that would do more than your dumb life-expanding cure could ever do.

Shaking, you read over the other three papers, and then back to the Soul essence paper. All were formatted similarly with the research topic at the top.

Soul essence, defined as one of the properties a soul is made up of, but also the key part in the soul. The soul essence is, as stated, the very essence of a soul. It controls the trait, the powers, dormant or not, but most importantly; gives the soul the life. Without the essence, the soul is a husk of what it could be. Useless.

Mended soul, defined as a soul that was either dusted or, the body died. Either way, a part of the soul-human connection died. One of them died, and yet the other survived. But, somehow, even after death, the other part thrived, and in some rare cases, revived the other part of the connection. The soul-human connection in humans where the body is dead and the soul is alive is common, but only for a certain amount of time after the body dies. Depending on the person. The other is a very rare case, only seen twice. Without the soul, a human becomes a husk of themself, only knowing one thing; their core purpose, which is often to revive the soul. Somehow.

Merged soul, defined exactly as it sounds. Often a result of a mended soul with the body gone, sometimes two souls merge. One way or another, how this is done is still unknown, but combine the merged soul and a host, a human body if you will, and you have a being of incredible power. Dangerously incredibly power. Merged souls are likely the only souls able to take on the task of removing the essence, though it still is a risky process.

Enchanted soul, defined as a soul with enough DETERMINATION to activate any and all dormant abilities and also remain physical and not dust instantly. Often a category of Merged souls.

You stared blankly at the papers, unable to comprehend everything going through your mind right now. Yes, there was valuable information and calculations on this paper, but without the whole picture, they're near useless. 

You sat there, cross-legged on the floor at 4:06 in the morning for a long while, going back and forth, attempting to piece together the equations to a bigger picture until you found yourself hovering over the call button of Alphys.

There was a ringing, and for a second, you weren’t sure if she would pick up her phone.

“Mngh, he-llo?” Alphys murmured tiredly over the phone.

“Alphys, you have to get over here now.”

“Wh-what happened at 4 in the m-morning..?” She groaned, her mind clouded with exhaustion.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. It’s important, just please.”

“Y/N, what’s going o-on,” her voice crackled in through the other side of the phone.

You grunted. “I found some...important research papers that are mine but they… aren’t exactly. Look, it’s easier to explain if you got over here. I’ve been attempting to decode this for half an hour now. With your help, maybe we can figure something out.”

Alphys sighed and audibly dragged a hand down her face. “I’ll be o-over s-soon. Get A-Amber too.”

With a click, she hung up and you let out a breath, knowing you’ll have to call your scary as shit sister, who was even scarier in the morning, especially at four in the morning.

You bit your lip and glanced at the digital clock just underneath the TV, just on the other side of the room. Shifting your glass on your face you sighed.

“Amber Starr, who is this?” Amber groaned on the other side of the phone.

“Good morning Amber.” You tried, smiling nervously though she couldn’t see it.

There was a pause, and Amber hung up on you. You grunted and tried again, ringing 3 more times until she finally picked up, sounding annoyed at you, but honestly more weary and drenched in exhaustion than anything else. 

“What the hell is so important ya haveta call me at…” She paused to check the time, “4:16 in the mornin’.” She grunted, shifting up in her bed, which barely crackled through your defunct phone.

“Alphys is going to be over in a second,” You paused and hesitated for a second, before continuing, “I found some research papers dated in the future. It’s my own work, but it's also not, because it’s in the future? Look I need help making sense of it, this is crucial to a whole new level. I need your help cracking this code.”

Amber paused, her breath audibly becoming uneven. 

“That’s strange. That exact same thin’ happened to me exactly a year ago, with research I wrote down just last month and has mysteriously disappeared.”

You bit your lip. “Then get over here. This shit is important.”

Amber hesitated. “I’ll be over in a few. Jus’ lemme wake up and I’ll be over in a secon’.”

You nodded, though you knew she still couldn't see you do it. “Alright.”

You hung up and waited for a minute or two before someone rapped on your door.

Likely Alphys, you reasoned, standing up from the clusterfuck of papers surrounding you sitting position, and carefully avoiding any stray papers. 

Opening the door gently, you were met with a sleepy yellow lizard, holding a coffee cup half-drunk in her hands and gently rubbing her eyes, as she pulled her coat close to her. She stepped inside silently and observed your apartment.

“O-oh my this is a mess.”

You roll your eyes. “A bit of an understatement, but yes, I agree.” 

She continued forward, eyeing the mess until she spotted the nice little diamond of the strange futuristic like papers. Grabbing them off the floor gently, she sat on the couch and reviewed them for a few seconds, muttering words of, “what th-the he-ck?” and “what.”

Then the doorbell rang once more, and instead of opening the door to a cold yellow lizard, you opened it to your tall sister, grumbling about the cold and scooting inside with a shiver. You closed the door behind her and watched as she tiredly fumbled out of her coat and put it on the coat hanger.

“So?” Amber started, looking around the house.

“So?” You replied back, confused.

“Where are these papers?”

“H-Here you are,” Alphys handed the papers to Amber. She scanned over them, her eyes widening ever so slightly.

“The strangest part is, I had a theory about these definitions a couple of years ago, though I never got around to actually experimenting because it was far too dangerous and risky and I merely didn’t have the budget.”

“But clearly in the future, you did,” Amber remarked.

“You see those equations and notes at the bottom? They’re onto something. But I can’t figure out what.”  
“Without the rest a’ these notes all you have are a couple a’ definitions and the start of an equation.”

“Like being given the first part of a key but you have to make the rest,”  
“Or getting a hint inna map.” Amber continued.

Alphys stood dumbfounded as the two of you prattled off after each other. 

“M-Maybe we can try looking- try looking for these remaining papers?”

You nodded, “I've sorted through these papers a hundred times before I even called yall, but it’s worth a shot. 

A shot in the air it proved to be.

You found no more than the four papers you were given and instead spent the rest of the night (or the next 3 hours actually) bouncing ideas off one another.

But the beginning of an equation is not the same without the end. 

Nothing seemed to fit correctly, which was a complete and utter disappointment, but you didn’t exactly expect to crack the code of these mysterious future papers that you had no idea if they were legitimate or not and if they were, you had barely enough to start anything. 

In the end, Alphys and Amber ended up giving up around 6, ready to get ready for work, while you spent until 7 (an hour after they left) trying to no avail to figure anything out.

No ideas seemed to stick, no ideas seemed to fit.

In the end, you threw (slid) the papers off the table in frustration and half screamed into the table covering.

You let out a heavy breath before gathering yourself once more, gathering the papers off the floor again and shuffled them into a neat pile into a folder, one that you labelled “Important” for future use in case you happen to tumble upon any more future papers.

You took one step into the living room and almost slid on a stack of papers, groaning as you saw most of the floor was covered in your other research you brought home. The one you intended to go over but was quickly interrupted by these strange documents from the future with no meaning, like the blank paper, or close to no meaning, the 4 new papers that you had no idea the legitimacy of. They sound accurate and logical, but does that make them true?

You breathed out a sigh and got to work cleaning up the scattered papers on the floor and stuffing them into their respective folders, before neatly shoving everything into your bag again.

With a tired groan and a glance to the alarm clock that read half an hour until you had to leave for work, you decided against any sleep, and rather occupy your time with breakfast.

After breakfast was over, you slid your bowl into the sink, slid on your coat and slipped on your shoes. You placed your hands on your hips and stared at the door, letting out a heavy breath. You had a lot of work to do, which included finding out the meaning, truth and legitimacy of these papers, and getting through the workday

Gaster will have a heart attack if he finds out there are more papers. 

Which is why you don’t intend to tell him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> agahagaha two update in one day what a madlad
> 
> no
> 
> i had chapter 7 written out before i even started chapter 6
> 
> also its short, yeah thats to not fry your brains after last chapter
> 
> anyways thats all im updating for today. as always see you in the next update!!


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